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personal-law
The Act applies to any person who is a Hindu by religion in any of its forms — including Virashaiva, Lingayat, and Brahmo Samaj — and to Buddhists, Sikhs, and Jains. It also covers any child born of Hindu parents (or of one Hindu parent, if brought up as Hindu). Christians, Parsis, and Muslims are governed by their respective personal laws or the Indian Succession Act 1925.
Under Section 5 of the Act, converts to another religion cease to be governed by the HSA. However, a person who was Hindu at birth and remains so through their lifetime continues under the HSA regardless of caste or community.
When a Hindu male dies intestate, his property devolves per Section 8 in this order: first to Class I heirs; if none, to Class II heirs; if none, to agnates (relatives through wholly male links); finally, to cognates (relatives through some female links).
Class I heirs include: son, daughter, widow, mother, son of a pre-deceased son, daughter of a pre-deceased son, son of a pre-deceased daughter, daughter of a pre-deceased daughter, widow of a pre-deceased son, and specific great-grandchildren under Schedule I. All Class I heirs take simultaneously in equal shares, per stirpes (representation).
Class II heirs are grouped in entries — father, siblings, grandparents, and their descendants — with each entry preferred over the next.
The Mitakshara school (which applies in most of India) treats ancestral property differently from self-acquired property. Ancestral property is jointly owned by all coparceners of a joint Hindu family, with each coparcener having a birthright share.
Before 2005, only male descendants (son, grandson, great-grandson) were coparceners. This meant daughters had no birthright in ancestral property — they could inherit only from the deceased's individual share after his death.
The Dayabhaga school (applicable in West Bengal and Assam) treats all property as separate — no coparcenary concept — and inheritance runs entirely through succession rules.
The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act 2005 amended Section 6 to make daughters coparceners by birth on equal footing with sons. This gave daughters the same rights and liabilities as sons in Mitakshara ancestral property.
For decades after the amendment, courts wrestled with whether this applied retrospectively — to daughters born before 2005, or where the father died before 2005. Different High Courts reached different conclusions.
In Vineeta Sharma v Rakesh Sharma (2020) 9 SCC 1, the Supreme Court settled the question. A three-judge bench held that the amendment is retrospective. Daughters are coparceners by birth regardless of when they were born, and regardless of whether the father was alive on 9 September 2005.
An unmarried Hindu daughter has a share by birth in her paternal ancestral property. She can demand partition; she can Will her share; she can pass her share to her children.
A married Hindu daughter's share does not merge with her husband's family. Her share in her father's ancestral property remains her separate property throughout her life.
Sons and daughters take equal shares in intestate distribution of the father's individual (self-acquired) property. In coparcenary property, each coparcener (including daughters) has an equal share on notional partition.
Section 14 of the HSA confers absolute ownership on a Hindu woman over property she possesses at the time of the Act's commencement (17 June 1956) or subsequently. Whether inherited, gifted, purchased, or acquired through her own efforts, it is her absolute property.
Before Section 14, a Hindu widow had only a limited estate in property inherited from her husband — she could enjoy it during her lifetime but not alienate it, and it reverted to the husband's heirs on her death. Section 14 abolished this limited estate.
Property acquired through the widow's own efforts (her own earnings, her own investments) was always absolute — Section 14 only clarified this for inherited property.
Every Hindu of sound mind above the age of 18 can Will their self-acquired property freely, subject to Section 30 of the HSA. Coparcenary property can be Willed only to the extent of the testator's own share (which is determined by notional partition).
Section 30 explicitly allows a Hindu testator to dispose of coparcenary property by Will. This overturned the pre-1956 position where coparcenary property passed only by survivorship.
Practical drafting: identify what is self-acquired versus ancestral in your Will. Self-acquired property can go to anyone. Ancestral property can go only to the extent of your share; the balance is other coparceners' entitlement.
This is general legal information, not legal advice. For your specific situation, consult a Law Tarazoo advocate.
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