FAMILY LAW - II

General Property Section 15(2)(b)

Property inherited from husband or father-in-law (Section 15(2)(b))

• Section 15(2)(b) provides that the husband shall be deemed to have died

immediately after the female Hindu died. It may be noted that a woman inherits
the property of her husband on his demise, as his widow. She also inherits from her
father-in-law as the widow of his predeceased son (provided she does not remain
before the date of the opening of the succession).
• Here, if the female had been married more than once, the properties inherited by
her from her respective husbands and their fathers should go to heirs of respective
husbands. However, if she remarried after inheriting property from her deceased
husband and died leaving behind issues from her second husband, she has not died
issueless and her children and second husband will succeed to the property. But if
she dies issueless, the second husband will not succeed and the property will revert
to the first husband’s heirs. Likewise, where a woman inherited property from her
second husband and died leaving behind a son from the first husband, a son would
take the property (Chintaram v. Rushibai, 2000 AIHC 1308 M.P.).
Cont……..
• In a recent case, a woman died leaving behind a son and a daughter, born to her from
the husband whose property she had inherited. From her previous marriage, she
already had a son. The Gauhati High Court held that the son born of the previous
marriage was not entitled to get the property, as it was the property that was inherited
by the woman from her second husband and he was not the heir of that husband. The
expression ‘son and daughter’ would mean the son and daughter of that husband from
whom or from whose father, she had inherited the property. The court reasoned that if
such property is allowed to be drifted away from the source through which the
deceased female had inherited the property, the object of Section 15(2) would be
defeated. The purpose of Section 15(2) is to ensure that the property left by a Hindu
female does not lose the real source from which the deceased female had inherited the
property as held in case Dhanistha Kalita v Ramakanta Kalita AIR 2001 Gau 92.
• It is submitted that the expression that the legislature has used in Section 15(2)(b) is in
absence of ‘any son or daughter of the deceased’. The expression is without any
qualification and the words ‘any son or daughter’ means any son or daughter and not
the son/daughters- legitimate, illegitimate, etc. these are the only relations that are
described concerning her and not regarding her father/husband/mother. All children
have equal rights over the property of their mother. 
Cont…
• It has been held that where the ‘heirs of husband’ are not present and a female
Hindu dies issueless, leaving behind property ‘inherited by husband/father-in-
law’, the property would be treated as the general property and devolve as per
Section 15(1) if any of heirs (her brother’s grandson, in the present case) is
present. In other words, this would not be treated as a case of ‘failure of heirs’
and the property would not go to the government under the application of the
doctrine of escheat. The intention behind Section 15(2) was not to eliminate the
other heirs specified in Section 15(1) but to give an order of preference (
State of Punjab v. Balwant Singh AIR 1991 SC 2301). It was held that it is
important to remember that a female Hindu being the full owner of the property
becomes a new heritage of descent. If she leaves behind any heir as per sub-
section(1) or sub-section(2) of Section 15, her property cannot be escheated.