Grandson cannot claim share in grandfather's property while father is alive

In a significant judgment, the Supreme Court has clarified that a grandson cannot claim a birthright in his grandfather's property while his father is alive. According to a TV9 Gujarati report, a bench comprising Justice Augustine George Masih and Justice Sunita Agarwal dismissed an appeal filed by a son. In this case, the son wanted to obtain a half share in the property sold by his father. This property was received by his father through the partition of his grandfather's property.

Referring to Section 8 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, the court stated that this section should be read as an independent provision regarding how property is transferred when a Hindu male dies intestate. The court noted that the grandson's name is not mentioned anywhere among the Class-I heirs in the schedule of the Act. Therefore, after the grandfather's demise, the property goes directly to the Class-I heirs and does not become Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) property for the son's branch.

The appellant argued under Section 29-A of the Tamil Nadu Amendment Act, 1989, that the father's share does not convert into self-acquired property through a 1994 compromise decree. However, the Supreme Court rejected this argument. The court clarified that under the compromise decree, each heir became the sole owner of their share, known as 'tenants in common', and not 'joint tenants'. Furthermore, the succession rights opened at the time of the death of the grandfather, N. Ramakrishnan, an event that occurred before the appellant's birth.

This legal dispute began with a partition suit filed in 1993. The Supreme Court noted that the 1994 compromise decree and the sale documents were never challenged; only a demand for possession of half the share was made. Previously, the Madras High Court had also delivered a similar verdict that the appellant has no birthright over the property that came into the father's hands after the grandfather's death. Once the property is partitioned, the share received by the son becomes his personal property.

The Hindu Succession Act, 1956, is an act passed by the Indian Parliament that determines the rules of inheritance and transfer of property among Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs. The main objective of this law was to bring equality in the succession of property and to give women rights in property. Under Section 8, the distribution of property is done based on priority to Class-I heirs, which includes the wife, son, and daughter. Before this law was enacted, the rules regarding inheritance of property were based on traditional Hindu laws, which were largely patriarchal.