Principles of Inheritance

Glossary Joint family/undivided family An extended family arrangement consisting of many generations living in the same home. It is ordinarily joint, not only in estate but in food and worship.

Religious efficacy The capacity for conferring spiritual benefit on the manes of paternal and maternal ancestors. Consanguinity Related by blood. Propinquity Proximity of relationship.

Sapinda Mitakshara: People connected by a common ancestor(community of blood). Dayabhaga: Community in offering of religious oblation.

Gotraja Sapindas Sapindas belonging to the same gotra or family; Sapindas are 57 in number; Bhinnogotra Sapindas or Bandhus Sapindas belonging to a different gotra or family from the deceased. They are all cognates, persons connected through females who have passed into other families or gotras;

Sakulayas Three generations from the great-great grandfather up and from the great-great grandson down; Samanodaka The samanodakas of a person include all his agnates from the 8th to 14th degree (Atmaram v. Baitrao); They are147 in number;

Gotraja Sapinda and Samanodakas are all agnates, (persons connected with him by an unbroken line of male descent).

Survivorship The right to receive full title or ownership due to having survived another person; Succession The passage of an individual's property to one or more dependents according to law;

Limited Estate Female succeeding as heirs, whether to a male or female, take a limited estate in the property; She becomes the owner, but with a limited interest; She can enjoy, but cannot alienate the property; On her death, property goes back to the heir of the person she succeeded.

Last “full” owner One who held the property absolutely at the time of his death. Fresh stock of descent An ancestor in whom a succession of inheritance begins.

Doctrine of representation A son or a grandson, whose father is dead, and a great grandson, whose father and grandfather are both dead, all succeed simultaneously as one heir to the property of their paternal ancestor. (Grandson represents the rights of his father to a share and the great grandson represents the rights both of his father and grandfather)

Spes Successionis The right of a person to succeed as heir on the death of a Hindu is a bare chance of succession; It is not a vested interest; and He cannot make a valid transfer of it.

Co-Heirs: Mitakshara School Two or more persons inheriting jointly take as tenants-in- common except the following four who take as joint tenants: Two or more sons, grandsons, and great grandsons in a joint family, succeeding to the separate of self acquired property of their paternal ancestors; Two or more grandsons by a daughter living as a joint family and succeeding to the maternal grandfather; Two or more widows succeeding their husband; Two or more daughters succeeding their father;

Co-Heirs: Dayabhaga school Two or more persons inheriting jointly take as tenants- in-common except Widows and Daughters.

Female Heirs Five female heirs: Widow; Daughter; Mother; Father’s mother; and Father’s father’s mother.

Three more added by the Hindu Law of Inheritance (Amendment) Act, 1929: Son’s daughter; Daughter’s daughter and Sister. Further addition by the Hindu Women’s Right to Property Act, 1937: Widow of a predeceased son; and Widow of a predeceased son of a predeceased son.

Per stripes- according to this manner of distribution, the estate is divided into equal shares, with one share allocated to each living child of the decedent and one to each predeceased child who has descendants living at the decedent's death; Per capita- all the living members of an identified group will receive an equal share of the decedent’s estate.

Two systems of inheritance The doctrine of religious efficacy* is the guiding principle under the Dayabhaga school. No guiding principle under Mitakshara school; sometimes consanguinity*or propinquity* (bhinnogotra sapindas), sometimes religious efficacy (sagotra sapindas). * The capacity for conferring spiritual benefit on the manes of paternal and maternal ancestors; *Related by blood; * Proximity of relationship.

Inheritance never in abeyance On the death of a Hindu, the right of succession vests immediately to the nearest heir; In no circumstance it can remain in abeyance in expectation of a preferable heir, not conceived at the time of owner’s death; Where already vested, cannot be divested (except conceived already).