The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday in a landmark decision that daughters of Hindu fathers are entitled to inherit their father's self-acquired and other properties if the father dies without making a will. The decision, which came as a result of an appeal against the Madras High Court decision, addressed the property rights of Hindu women and widows under the Hindu Succession Act. In its decision, the Supreme Court stated that such daughters would be given preference over other collateral members of the family, such as sons and daughters of the deceased father's brothers. The court was debating the legality of the daughter inheriting her father's self-acquired property in the absence of any other legal heir. The Supreme Court also addressed whether such property would pass to the daughter upon her father's death or to the father's brother's son by survivorship in the absence of any other legal heir. The decision came in response to an appeal from the Madras High Court, which had dismissed the daughters' partition suit. The court stated that if a female Hindu dies without leaving a will, the property she inherited from her father or mother would go to her father's heirs. The property she inherited from her husband or father-in-law, on the other hand, would pass to the husband's heirs. In dealing with the facts of the case, the bench overturned the trial court and high court's rulings dismissing the daughters' partition suit.
"Thus, the impugned judgment and decree dated March 01, 1994, passed by the Trial Court and confirmed by the High Court vide judgment and order dated January 21, 2009, are not liable to be sustained and are hereby set aside," it said.