SUCCESSION

Hindu law
Dayabhaga School
■ There are two major Schools of Hindu Law;
■ Dayabhaga School of Hindu Law and
■ Mitakshara school of Hindu law.
■ The Hindu people of Bangladesh follows the Dayabhaga School of Hindu Law. We will
discuss the principals and practices of Dayabha school of Hindu law with the statutory
changes that affect the most practical aspects of the present life and which are approved and
applicable today in Bangladesh.
■ The heirs of a deceased person under Dayavaga School can be segmented under three
classes and according to the list.
■ Generally, the property will be transferred according to the hierarchy of the hires and one
will exclude another but with some exceptions mentioned below.
Chronological list of hires

1. Son
2. Grand Son
3. Great Grandson
4. Widow / Wife | 4A. Predeceased Son’s widow / Wife
5. Daughter
6. Daughter’s son
7. Father
8. Mother
9. Brother, etc.
■ We will focus on them according to the orders of heirs under this school.
 Sapinda

• 1. Son
• 2. Grand Son
1st class • 3. Great Grandson
Sapinda • 4. Widow / Wife | 4A. Predeceased Son’s widow / Wife
• 5. Daughter

• 6.Daughter’s son
2nd class • 7. Father
Sapinda • 8. Mother
• 9. Brother, etc.
Sapinda:

■ This is the first class. As a patriarchal society, it is believed that the male
ascendants carry the blood of the deceased. Sapinda signifies the close
blood relation between the ascendants and the deceased. These relations
are considered undivided oblation. They are as follows;
First Class Sapinda

■ Order 1-3; Son, grandson and great-grandson: a son or grandson (Great-

grandson or great-great-grandson or similar relation to the ascendant.
known as doctrine representation; here every person is representing his
predecessor) when their immediate predecessor/s is/are dead they get the
equal property of a son being the representative of his predecessor; this
system is called Per Stirpes system. [Consider the Yellow coloured
position as dead and Green as alive in the image to understand the
concept in the math image below]
■ Before we start the most important rule of Hindu law of inheritance is
that it maintains the order of the successors, the previous person in the
order always excludes the subsequent person in the list. but certain
exceptions are there and that will be mentioned along with the orders.
such as order 1-4 does not exclude each other when they are from
different bloodline. for example where son is alive that son’s son
(grandson) will not inherit.
Principle of Representation or Per Stirpes:

■ Where every person represents his predecessor and gets the same amount
of property that could have obtained by their predecessor if they were
alive in the present situation. We can remember it as, per stipe means per
line of blood, the more person in a line the more division of the property
will be there in that line. See the picture below and it will be easier to
understand with given description;
Example: 1
■ consider three bloodlines (as stripe) of three sons of A, now if three sons were alive
during the death of A they would get 1/3 each (1/3+1/3+1/3=1); here one means the
whole property or 100% property). According to per stripe rule, B1 and B2 will get
the portion of the property that could have achieved by their father if he were alive.
That means 1/3 of the property will be distributed to B1 & B2 so they will get 1/2 of
1/3 = 1/6 each. Now if you sum the total it would be one (1/3+1/3+1/6+1/6 = 1), hope
now the concept is clear if you know the fraction math.
■ Order 4;
■ As per Hindu Women’s Right to Property Act, 1937, a widow takes the
same share as a son [if there is more than one widow they share that
property (of one son)], thus, by law a widow confirms his position
in Order 4 but there are few things we need to know; there are special
rules that are applicable for the widow or the wife of the deceased person.
Limited interest in women’s inherited property

■ Any Widow, Daughter or any females who are in the hire list only gets limited
interest, that means she can enjoy the benefit of the property but cannot sell or
transfer or own the property unless there are any extraordinary circumstances
where it is important to sell or transfer the property to save the property for future
heirs. This limited interest ends with the death of that female heir, after her death,
these properties shall return to other heirs according to the order of hires of the
deceased person.
■ She cannot be married again
■ She must not be an unchaste woman
■ If there is more than one widow they together get equal property as a son.
■ But it must be mentioned that there another kind of property of women known
as Stridhan
■ Stridhan
■ “Sthidhan” means the property, whether moveable or immoveable that have earned or received by a
woman by any means or by gift is her own property, she holds the absolute title of that property, she
can do anything with that property and after her death, that property will be distributed among her
Heirs.
■ Dowry
■ Due to this rule of Limited interest in women’s inherited property, it is widely known and spread that
women do not get anything from their fathers’ property which is not completely true but a defacto truth
as daughters can only inherit if there are no heirs according to the order 1-4 & 4A;
but the reality can beg to differ because it is often hard to maintain a property from far away which has no
real future. Therefore women often do not pay much attention or demand for such property as that may
create some new problems too. Along with this problem when the concept of Stridhan is presented the
dowry system comes into play, where the father of the bride pays a hefty sum of property to her daughter
during her marriage to satisfy the other party and give her daughter a fair share of his property as a gift
when he is alive.
Example 2 :

■ A died leaving behind two sons B & C and two wives (widow) D & E
■ A
—————————————————————–
B | C | D | E ;
1/3 | 1/3 | 1/6 | 1/6
■
Here D and E together get 1/3 then that property divided between them.
■ In the given case doctrine of survivorship or joint tenant or co-heirs is applicable
to the widow if one wife dies (consider D dies) then her part of the property shall go
to another widow (E shall hold 1/3) until her death and when both of them die then
the property will return acceding to the given order that means, in this case, B and C
will get ½ each in such situation.
■ Order 4A. Predeceased son’s widow; predeceased son’s widow
simultaneously gets as per stripes as if she is getting his (her husband’s)
property.
■ [as we know Hindu marriage is a sacrament by which they become a part of
the each other thus they become Sapinda for each other]
■ It must be noted and remembered that these first four orders of
shapindas can never be excluded if they are alive, and per stripe
(representation) method only applies to these four types of heirs [order 1,
2, 3, (4+4A)]
Does Daughter inherit under Hindu law?

■ Now the answer depends on the definition of inheritance. now if we look at the
widely used definition then the inheritance is;
■ Inheritance is the practice of passing on private property, titles, debts, rights, and
obligations upon the death of an individual.
■ Now, according to this definition, Yes, daughters get the property of their father
but with some condition.
■ The first condition is daughter shall not get the property if there is any person
before me according to the list. that means if there any person from order 1 to
order 4A daughter/s shall not get any property by inheritance.
■ If she gets any property she will only get the limited interest.
■ Here the question arises then what would happen to the daughters under Hindu law?
well in that case if such daughter/s are minor or unmarried or widowed but not
supported/ maintained by her husbands family and it is the duty of those who inherited
her father’s property to provide her maintenance.
■ Order 5. Daughter: In Hindu Law, all daughters are not considered equal. There are
priorities and bars according to terms and conditions/situation.
■ Shall succeed
– The Maiden comes first in her default
– A daughter who has a son or likely to have a son get the priority [Married
daughter having a male issue.
■ Shall not succeed
– A barren daughter and a sonless widowed daughter are not entitled to succeed.[1]
– Unchaste daughter is not entitled to succeed.
– Only gets if there is no Heir from Order 1 to Order 4A.
■ Two or more daughters of a class take the estate jointly with a right of survivorship
(like widow)
Second Class Sapinda

■ Only inherits where there is no first class Sapinda is alive.

■ Order 6. Daughter’s son; he holds his position in the second class spends.
■ Gets Per Capita, equal at the same stage [we can easily remember it as per cap – per
head method]
■ Example 03: Per Capita property distribution
■ A died leaving behind four grandson from two daughters B & C; B’s son D & E and C’s
Son F, G, H.
■ A
———————————————————————-
B|C
D (1/5) | E(1/5) | F (1/5) | G (1/5) | H (1/5)
■ Here, if we count the living heirs there are basically five-person. and each of them shall
get equally one-fifth of the property; (1/5) each
■ Daughters son, Brothers son, Uncle’s son or sister’s son take Per Capita.
■ Order 7. Father; In default of daughter’s son, the father succeeds.
■ Order 8, Mother;
■ Stepmother does not get any property
■ Must be a chaste woman
■ Must not re-marry
■ Order 9, Brother;
■ Full brother proffered over half-brother
■ Order 10, Brother’s son; In default of Brother
■ Order 11, Brother’s son’s son; do (same condition as previous one)
■ Order 12, Sister’s Son; do, no distinction between half-sister and full sister.
■ Order 13, Paternal Grandfather;
■ Order 14, Paternal Gran Mother;
■ Order 15. Paternal Uncle;
■ 2. Sakullya
■ The term Sakullya means one belonging to the same family (Kula) They are;
■ To whom he is bound to offer Pindalepas while he is alive;
■ Who, on his death are bound to offer pindalepas to him and who are bound to offer
pindalepas to those, to whom he offers the pindalepas and all of them are his sakulyas.
Stats from Great-great-great grandson.
■ 3. Samanodakas
■ Mans and includes those male relations to whom a Hindu offers oblations of water and
those who offer such oblations of water to him at the time performing parvana
sraddha ceremony.
■ When a person can be deprived of inheritance under Hindu law?
■ Religion
– Renunciation of religion (Special Marriage Act, 1872 etc.)
■ Moral
– Unchastely
– Addiction to vices
– Enmity to father
– Enmity to porosities
■ Mental
– Insanity
– Idiocy
■ Physical
– Blindness
– Deafness
– Dumbness
– Lameness
– Impotency
– Leprosy
– Barren
– And other incurable diseases
■ A murderer of the deceased person and heirs of the murderer shall be excluded from
inheritance.