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. 
Coparcenary interest acquired by Female as per Section
15(1) and not by Section 15(2)
• After the 2005 Amendment to the Hindu Succession Act (1956), a daughter
(married or unmarried) has become a coparcener like a son with occasions of
coparcenary ownership. As noted earlier, a coparcenary interest is acquired by a
daughter by birth and though it comes from the family of her father it is not an
interest that she has ‘inherited’ from her parents. under such a situation, her
heirs would be her husband, her children and children of predeceased children.
These heirs would succeed to her property whether she dies without seeking
partition or she dies after partition. 
• Thus, in case of a female dying intestate, her interest as determined under 
Section 6(3) will be succeeded to her heirs following Section 15(1). Section 15(2)
 cannot apply here because the interest calculated under Section 6(3) is not a
share which she inherits from her father.
Succession to a property by a Hindu female (Example)

• A Hindu joint family consisting of Father(F), his Wife(W), his Son(S) having two children i.e,
grandchildren S1 and D1, his Daughter(D) having a daughter, ie.granddaughter D4 and a
predeceased Daughter D3 having a son(S2) and a daughter(D2). In the aforesaid example, the
succession to the property of predeceased daughter D3 survived by her husband(H) and
son(S2) and a daughter(D2) will be as follows:
• D3’s share in the coparcenary property was 1/5th. This share of hers is ‘coparcenary property’
even against her son and daughter because Section 6(2) provides that any property to which
a female Hindu becomes entitled by Section 6(1) shall be held by her with the incidents of
coparcenary ownership. Thus, her interest in coparcenary property will be divided as per
notional partition between her and her son S2 and her daughter D2. Thus, D3, S2 and D2
each will get 1/15th.
• This 1/15th will go by intestate succession to her heirs under Section 15(1), as provided in 
Section 6(3) that ‘his interest in the property of a joint Hindu family governed by the
Mitakshara, shall devolve by testamentary or intestate succession and not by survivorship’.
Here, a portion of Section 6(1) which provides ‘any reference to a Hindu Mitakshara
coparcener shall be deemed to include a reference to a daughter of a coparcener’ becomes
important. Thus, the expression ‘his’ applies to ‘her’ too. Therefore, this 1/15th is treated at
par with her ‘separate property’ which thus, her ‘absolute property’. According to Section
15(1), this 1/15th will be divided into three parts equally between her husband H, her son S2
and her daughter D2, each getting 1/45th share.
Cont…….
• The shares will be as follows:
 F- ⅕
 W- ⅕
 S- ⅕
 D- ⅕
 D2- 1/15 + 1/45
 S2- 1/15 + 1/45
 H- 1/45