How To Claim A Share In The Ancestral Property In India
10/10/2020 Property Case Lawyers

Generally speaking, ancestral property refers to property or plots belonging to ancestors. However, 30-year-old Ramya, from Mysore, doubts whether he will get a share of his ancestral property (farmland purchased by his grandfather). His father is now planning to sell it without his consent. What choice does he have to reclaim his shares?

According to Hindu law, the property can be divided into two categories: ancestral property and self-acquired property. Ancestral property is, in fact, a person's grandfather's self-acquired and undivided property.

 

What is The Ancestral Property?

Legally speaking, ancestral property is inherited up to four generations of male lineage. The right to share in an ancestral property derives from the birth itself, unlike other types of inheritance, where the inheritance is opened upon the death of the owner.


Father And Son's Share in  Ancestral Property 

The father (the current owner of the ancestral property) and the son have equal ownership of the property. However, the share of each generation (father and his siblings) must be determined first, after which successive generations must subdivide the portion inherited from their corresponding predecessors.


Sons And Daughters Share in Ancestral Property

In 2016, the Delhi High Court ruled that an adult son had no legal claim to the self-acquired property of his parents. Where the house is a parents' self-acquired house, a son, whether married or unmarried, has no legal right to live in that house and he can only live in that house at the mercy of his parents until the time allowed by the parents, "the order said.

Once the ancestor’s property is distributed among family members, it will no longer be the ancestor’s property. A father has an option not to give his own acquired property to his son. However, this is not true for ancestral assets.

The Hindu Succession (Amendment ) Act, 2005 confers on the daughter equal rights (with the son) to ancestral property. Only male members of the family were coparceners prior to the amendment of Section 6 of the original 1956 Hindu Succession Act, which did not mention the daughter's right in coparcenary property.

 

Some Facts On Ancestral Properties

 

  • The right to a share in an ancestral property comes from birth.

  • Coparceners, including daughters, can seek the partitioning and selling of the ancestral home and secure their share of it.

  • Referring to Ramya's query above, the property of the paternal ancestors can not be sold without the consent of the successors. However, it can be asserted by filing a partition suit in a court of law.

  • Similarly, if your share is rejected, you-submit a legal notice seeking your share.

  • The property shall be considered ancestral property, provided that it is not shared by members of the joint Hindu family.

  • After the inherited property is partitioned, the share earned by each coparcener becomes his or her self-acquired property.

  • The property acquired on the maternal side does not count as ancestral property.

  • The head of an undivided Hindu family has the right to manage family properties under the Hindu rule. However, when it comes to land ownership and ancestral property rights, each coparcener is entitled to receive his or her share.