The Hon’ble Supreme Court has recently passed a judgment in respect of whether the amendment of 2005 to the Hindu Succession Act (“The Amendment Act”) is prospective or retrospective. It has passed the said judgment in a bunch of Petitions on 16th October 2015. The Judgment is passed by the Bench of Justice Anil R. Dave and Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel. The Bench only decided the aforesaid legal issue and left it to all the other Courts to decide all other aspects in the light of this judgment.
“Connected matters have been entertained in this Court mainly on account of the said legal issue particularly when there are said to be differing views of High Courts which makes it necessary that the issue is decided by this Court. It is not necessary to go into the facts of the individual case or the correctness of the findings recorded by the courts below on various other issues. It was made clear during the hearing that after deciding the legal issue, all other aspects may be decided separately in the light of the judgment of this Court.”
The Hon’ble Supreme Court, in the said judgment held as under:
“Rights under the amendment are applicable to living daughters of living coparceners as on 9th September, 2005 irrespective of when such daughters are born. Disposition or alienation including partitions which may have taken place before 20th December, 2004 as per law applicable prior to the said date will remain unaffected. Any transaction of partition effected thereafter will be governed by the Explanation.”
Thus, for a daughter to claim share in the coparcenary property, both she and her father should be alive on the date of the said amendment. The Hon’ble Supreme Court while coming to this conclusion observed as under:
This article was initially published on Legally India. Readers can find the original post here: