Kochi: The Kerala High Court ruled that Sections 3 and 4 of the Kerala Joint Hindu Family System (Abolition) Act, 1975, are repugnant to Section 6 of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, and hence cannot prevail.

Section 3 of the state law barred claims of birthright in ancestral property, while Section 4 deemed Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) in Kerala as partitioned and converted them into tenancy-in-common.

The court observed that because of these provisions, a Hindu daughter could not claim equal coparcenary rights in joint family property, contrary to the rights granted under the 2005 amendment.

“In the state of Kerala, we are faced with a peculiar situation wherein the Kerala Joint Family System (Abolition) Act, 1975, stands in the way of a daughter claiming the benefit of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005,” the judgment noted.

The court held that daughters of Hindus who die after December 20, 2004, are entitled to an equal share in ancestral property, subject to the exception in Section 6(5) of the Hindu Succession Act, which protects partitions effected before that date.

Case background
The judgment arose from a partition suit filed by female heirs seeking equal rights in their late father’s ancestral property. The central question was whether, after the 2005 amendment, daughters could be denied coparcenary rights in Kerala in light of the state’s earlier legislation.

The plaintiffs argued that they were entitled to equal inheritance under the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act of 2005. The defendants countered, citing a Will allegedly executed by the father and pointing to the Kerala Joint Hindu Family System (Abolition) Act, 1975, which excluded daughters from coparcenary rights.

Court’s reasoning
Justice Easwaran emphasised that the 1975 Kerala Act did not abolish the joint family system outright but merely created a "deemed partition" by converting coparcenary property into tenancy-in-common. He also noted that the law still allowed testamentary dispositions that could defeat daughters’ shares.

“When pitted against Section 3 of the state Act, there is a conflict with the central Act since the latter gives a right by birth to a daughter which the state Act does not recognise,” the court said.

Concluding, the court declared that daughters in Kerala have an equal share in ancestral property under the 2005 amendment, provided the father died after December 20, 2004, and subject to valid partitions effected before that date.

The judgment opened with a verse likening daughters to Goddess Lakshmi and referenced the Skanda Purana, which says: “One daughter is equal to ten sons.”
(With LiveLaw inputs)