JOIN US“Son is a son until he gets a wife; daughter is a daughter throughout her life. A married daughter is also a coparcener and she is entitled to equal share along with the son,” a division bench comprising Justices N Kumar and A N Venugopalagowda observed while delivering a judgement.
Hindu Succession (Amended) Act, 2005 provided that daughters have no right over the property if they are dispossessed or alienated before December 24, 2004. The same was applicable to married women too. However the order now allows the daughter to claim equal right in the property. As per the judgement, marriage in no way effects daughter’s right to equal share in the coparcenary properties.
The amendment to the Act came into force on September 5, 2005. The right which it confers on a daughter of a coparcener is from the date of her birth. Therefore though the amendment Act is prospective, the right is conferred from the date of birth. In effect the daughter gets the right in the property by birth, which is much prior to the commencement of the Act, the court said.
Discrimination
The discrimination continued between the son and the daughter in the matter of sharing the coparcenery-parcenary properties and it took nearly 50 years in free India to resolve. The amendment Act is curative and remedial in nature. It not only intends to give equal rights to the daughter, it intends to give such rights from the day the Act came into force,” the court observed while upholding the amendment. However, the daughter has no right to claim the property if it is registered or has reached the finality of the final decree.