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Karunanidhi v. Seetharama Naidu & Ors.

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 4490 of 2017)Decided 27 Mar 2017
Civil Appeal No. 4490 of 2017
Justice R.K. Agrawal · Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre

Background

The dispute was among descendants of one Perumal Naidu, whose property passed down through heirs from his three wives over several generations. A key heir, Alamelu Ammal, received a share of the property through her father's will and later executed her own will leaving that share to her sister (the appellant's predecessor), rather than it passing to the plaintiffs (other descendants) as "ancestral" property. The plaintiffs sued claiming a 1/3rd share, arguing the property should have devolved on them as the deceased heir's natural successors under the Hindu Succession Act rather than through her personal will.

Decision Breakdown

The trial court and High Court had ruled partly in the plaintiffs' favour, holding that under Section 15(2)(a) of the Hindu Succession Act (which gives special devolution rules for property a woman inherited from her father/mother), the share should pass back to the father's heirs rather than follow the deceased heir's own will. The Supreme Court disagreed: it held that once an heir becomes the absolute owner of property through a will (as opposed to merely a "life interest"), she is free to dispose of it by her own will to anyone she chooses, and the special reversion rule under Section 15(2) simply does not apply to absolute ownership acquired this way. The Court therefore set aside the High Court's judgment, restored the trial court's original dismissal of the plaintiffs' suit, and did not find it necessary to decide the broader legal question of whether Section 15(2)(a) could ever cover property received by will (as opposed to by natural succession).

Lesson Learnt

When a Hindu woman becomes the absolute owner of inherited property (rather than holding only a life interest in it), she has full freedom to will that property to anyone of her choosing: the special statutory rule steering certain inherited property back to the original family line applies only to natural succession, not to property she later disposes of by her own valid will.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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