Married daughter’s right in ancestral HUF property: What the 2005 law change means

Married daughter’s right in ancestral HUF property

• A daughter is entitled to a share in HUF property if alive on 9 Sep 2005
• Marital status doesn't affect daughter's coparcener rights under Hindu Succession Act
• Partition must be full and recorded by income tax officer for recognition

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Ancestral property disputes often raise questions around daughters’ rights, especially when marriages and deaths predate legal changes. Today's Ask Wallet Wise query decodes how the 2005 amendment to the Hindu Succession Act applies to the partition of an HUF and a married sister’s entitlement.

Ask Wallet-Wise initiative offers expert advice on matters related to personal finance and money-related queries. You can email your queries to askwalletwise@nw18.com, and we will try and get a top financial expert to address.

I have a daughter and a son. I have one married sister.  My father expired before 2000. My mother lives with me. We have an ancestral property owned by HUF of my father. The sister got married in 1999. Whether my married sister is entitled to get any share at the time of partition of the HUF of my father.

Expert's Advice: The amendment of Hindu Succession Act, 1956 made in 2005 has made a daughter a coparcener with equal rights as that of a son. It does not make any difference whether the daughter is married or unmarried.

Being a coparcener, a daughter is entitled ask for partition of the assets of the HUF and get a share in the HUF provided she was alive on 9th September, 2005 when the amended provisions came into effect.

It is not necessary that the father of the daughter should be alive on that date because the incidence of becoming coparcener is connected with the birth of the daughter and is not dependent on whether the father was alive or not on that date.

The daughter becomes a coparcener as soon as she takes birth in the family. Since your sister was alive on 9th September 2005, she is a coparcener in the HUF of your father.

The assets of your father’s HUF will be divided in three equal parts between your mother, you and your sister on the partition. The share at the time of partition need not be the equal as the assets can be distributed unequally with the consent of all the coparceners. Your sister can even renounce her share if she wishes so.

Please note that for the partition to be recognised by the income tax department it has to be full partition as regards all the assets of the HUF.  An order recording the full partition needs to be obtained from the jurisdictional income tax officer.

Disclaimer:The views expressed by experts on Moneycontrol are their own and not those of the website or its management. Moneycontrol advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decision.

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