Daughters’ Inheritance Rights: Equality On Paper, Obstacles On The Ground

“We paid dowry during your wedding and that’s your inheritance. You don’t have a right to anything else.”

“Now that you are married, your spouse and in-laws should provide for you. Don’t stake a claim in your father’s property.”

“You have made a life choice that we don’t agree with. That automatically eliminates any claim in inheritance.”

“Your insistence on having a share in the property has created a rift in the family and the extended family is now laughing at us.”

Around 75 years after the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 provided daughters and sons equal rights in their father’s self-acquired property and 20 years after the Hindu Succession Act (Amendment), 2005, widened those rights to ancestral property, it is all too common to hear versions of such social beliefs or rather excuses that have been normalised in most Indian families.

With the society using such excuses to disinherit daughters from what is theirs by law—a share in the father’s (where he dies intestate or without a Will) and ancestral property—women either cower down or quietly step back. Those who do not succumb are often demonised, blamed and shamed for being too greedy and selfish, for creating a rift in families and for non-acquiescence, an unacceptable quality for women to have in India. After all, it’s a country where mythology celebrates the qualities of sacrifice, self-effacement, gratefulness and obedience in women, while placing the burden of maintaining the honour of families squarely on their shoulders.

Then there’s the emotional fallout to tackle. Fractured relations with families create an emotional abyss for many women as they face social isolation in the environment in which they grew up.

All this points out to one fact: that women’s rights remain fragile and contested in India. We went through the stories of a cross-section of women to understand this deep malaise and did a deep dive into the Indian legal system to find if it’s indeed being able to provide succour.

We restricted ourselves to the Hindu Succession Act, for the sake of simplicity, though property rights of Muslim and Christian women are also important to discuss, as cases of disinheritance abound in these communities as well. It may also be noted that many families have overcome this malaise and treat their daughters and sons equally in all aspects, including inheritance. But the fight for daughters’ inheritance rights is still long-drawn.

The Social Malaise

Even with rising awareness and education, women often give up their rights to escape its ramifications, such as emotional instability, isolation from their own families and rupture in lifetime relationships.

Says Karuna Chanana, senior academic and former professor at Zakir Hussain Centre for Educational Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University: “The laws are changing, but it's the society that is not. This is more to do with the patriarchal set-up, which cuts across all classes, except the very rich, who have other considerations like income tax. The patriarchal mindset is very difficult to change.”

Smriti Singh, 39, a professional based in Delhi who didn’t want to reveal her real name, and her older sister have decided to sign off their shares in their ancestral property to their brother, who is the youngest among the three siblings.

That came as a surprise when I spoke to Smriti as she was among the first few women who wrote to us to participate in the story, when I put out a social post asking women to reach out to us if they had faced problems on inheritance.

After a bit of prodding, it became apparent that Smriti, a divorcee, had taken this decision “to keep the peace in the family and to maintain future relations”. She is very close to her nephew and niece, children of her brother, and it will be difficult for her to get isolated from her own family, so she’s accepted “status quo”.

“My brother is trying to get my sister and I to sign some documents to say we are okay with him having everything. If we don’t sign it, he will get everyone in the family involved. My brother behaves as if he is entitled to everything,” says Smriti.

Ironically, she and her sister are grateful for whatever their dad has done for them, despite the knowledge that her share would be much larger than what she has got till date. “It’s to protect the honour of the family because otherwise the impression will be that the children are fighting among themselves for property. We’re from a family set-up where the birth of my brother after two sisters was celebrated.”

It’s not that she does not understand the issue at hand. “I come from a conservative family, but I studied English literature, which introduced me to feminist ideas. I have started thinking differently, but I keep my thoughts to myself and never put it on the table with my family.”

What Smriti fears and avoids, Pooja Khera, 45, a corporate employee and content creator based in Gurugram, is facing. When she asked for a part of her share in her maternal property, she was shunned by her parents and brother.

Pooja’s parents live in their own house and recently gifted a substantial amount of money to her brother to help him buy his own house. “For years, I never bothered to ask for anything, but then in the last 2-3 years, things happened because of which I needed some financial support, and asked for help. I wasn’t even asking how much they gave him. I asked them where my share was and raised the question of my maternal house.”

All hell broke loose after that. “I can’t even describe the treatment I got from my parents and brother, and what all I got to hear after that. I also offered that if they didn’t want to give me anything in the house, they could just buy me a one-bedroom house in NCR.”

All Pooja got to hear was they had already given her a lot. “And then I found out from other people that conversations with a lawyer had started, and I was asked to sign a document saying I have no right in this house. Moreover, my mother, who is a businesswoman herself, has become my worst enemy.”

Ironically, most women have it hard with their mothers. Smriti has resolved this by understanding that her mother is herself a victim of patriarchy. “She’s the biggest victim of patriarchy, but she's also the biggest promoter of patriarchy because she just doesn’t want to get out of that set-up or challenge it.”

Chanana explains why daughters feel wronged by their mothers. “Mothers, and even the parents, still think that the son/s will take care of them in old age. Though I think this is a misplaced belief and in a lot of cases now, it is the daughters who are looking after their parents and not the sons as I can see in the society in which I live.” She adds that she has noticed older women/parents living with their working married daughters happily.

Still, they are often not given their due. Chanana cites a case where even though the daughter took care of the parents, she had to buy a floor in the building owned by them and in which they were living. The father kept two floors for his son who was living with his in-laws after his marriage. “It demonstrates that not only do the daughters not ask for property, but are willing to purchase their rightful share of the property from parents in order to take care of them who were living alone. Meanwhile, sons presume that they are the sole owners of parental property.”

Chanana explains daughters are socialised to be caring and even after marriage look after their mothers after the death of the father because the sons do not want to do that. “They (mothers) will also give all the property to the sons and the daughter will not ask for it nor will feel she is wronged,” she says.

For Chandrima B., 34, a Nagpur-based freelance writer, too, the biggest shock was that her mother took a stand against her. She refused to give Chandrima, who did not want to give her real name, gold jewellery meant for her when she decided not to get married, but continue a live-in relationship with her partner.

The couple planned to get married in 2020, but when Covid hit, the plans got derailed. “Marriage was never an objective for us, so we moved on in terms of our life and career goals.” Later in 2022, the issue arose again, but due to a “mismatch of expectations from all sides”, it got cancelled. “Nobody was really caring about what we wanted to do or who we wanted to invite or things like that. It was like a project for them, and not really about my happiness or well-being.” For her and her partner, it’s not a problem because it gives them a lot of freedom and they believe their “love for each other does not have to be defined by the terms of a marriage”.

Chandrima had a major fallout with her parents at the time but a little later, she asked in passing if she could have a gold necklace that her maternal grandmother had left for her. “My parents had also bought gold jewellery for me when I was in college, for my marriage. I didn’t ask for that but the piece that my grandmother bought for me, saying she was gifting it to me then because she was not sure if she would be alive later. She is indeed no more, but there was no condition that the jewellery piece should be given to me only if I get married.”

To her shock, her mother flatly refused to give her any gold since she was not getting married and the request ended in a bitter exchange of words. “But my mom was unmoved.”

“They never even gave me the proceeds of a fixed deposit (FD) that my maternal grandfather had left in my name. The main problem is they refuse to acknowledge that I’m a grown woman, I have my rights, I have my career, I have my house, I have my life.”

Chanana highlights a contradiction in the way mothers think about daughters—they are ready to empower daughters by providing them education, but are not in favour of giving property rights to them. In a paper, The Dialectics Of Tradition And Modernity And Women’s Education In India, published in the Sociological Bulletin, 1990, based on interviews of three generations of Punjabi women, she says that mothers lay emphasis on educating daughters to make them self-sufficient in case of widowhood or divorce etc. after the parents are no more and their brothers will also not take care of them. In contrast, however, on the issue of bequeathing property to daughters, the women reason that it will hurt the brothers and will, therefore, adversely affect the bond between brothers and sisters. She says the situation is still the same.

The findings resonate more than 35 years later with many cases, including Pooja’s. “I come from a very typical Indian family, where once girls get married, it is assumed they don’t need to have any right in the maternal property, especially if there is a brother,” says Pooja.

It’s all about deep-seated social conditioning, says Chandrima. “My father belongs to the generation where having two daughters meant that I will raise them right, I will give them the education they deserve, I will help them build a life and then I will pass them off to someone else and be done with it. I don’t want anything from my daughters. I will do my savings and I will take care of me and my wife after I retire because daughters are not supposed to take care of you. He believes in that very strongly and from that perspective, they are done with me.”

Chandrima also raises an important point on how women are expected to sign off their rights, which is happening with her father’s ancestral house, and being demanded from Smriti and Pooja.

The sad part is many women themselves are not willing to do anything about it, including those who come from so-called educated and liberal families. “Many girls are so conditioned that they will not even expect that something like this can happen (they getting their rights) or they can voice that,” says Chandrima.

Scarred For Life

In all this, families give little thought to how deeply women get scarred in the process.

Smriti experiences an underlying tension in the family, but never expresses it. Every time her father helped her monetarily—once when she decided to buy a house and another time during her wedding—her brother openly objected to it. “Even when my father gives us gifts, like he gave my sister a cheque to buy an iPhone, my brother grumbles.”

The tiff over her rights has destroyed the earlier equation Pooja had with her parents and brother. Things have become so sour that they are not even on speaking terms anymore. “Nobody speaks to me, all because I asked for my due, which is legal now. When I used the word equal, it was like the next nuclear bomb just dropped, verbally.”

Her family thinks she has made them a laughing stock in front of everyone, “just because I asked”. The rift is so bad that the last time she went to her hometown for a family wedding, Pooja had to stay at a hotel and not her home. “Imagine going to your hometown and staying in a hotel,” says Pooja, a twinge of hurt obvious in her voice.

“What is shocking is that it’s the family you have grown up with and the fact that you didn’t expect this to happen. You knew that things could go bad or equations can’t be trusted but you are not ready for total rejection. Who wants such toxicity in their lives?”

Quite understandably, the experience took an emotional toll on her. “I feel unwanted and am still processing how your own parents can treat you like this.” She hasn’t taken any concrete action yet, but feels the wedge in the relations with her own family can never be filled now. “The equations have gone forever. Right now, I don’t want to hear from my mother. If I see her number blinking on my phone. My anxiety goes up 100 times. What is she going to say to me now? I’m definitely not at peace. I don’t think anyone can be at peace after experiencing something like this.”

Like Pooja’s case, things have become so bitter that Chandrima doesn’t visit her parents’ house in Durgapur anymore. “I went to my hometown recently but they didn’t bother that I was there. All because I have refused to get married.” In fact, they may give their wealth to charity rather than her; Chandrima’s elder sister lives in London and doesn’t want any money from her parents.

Says Chandrima, “I try not to think about it very often because it irritates me and I feel very lost. I’m like, what have I done to make my mother feel like this? Sometimes I just feel that it’s maybe because she couldn’t accept my decision.”

The Legal Framework

Historically, Indian women have had limited rights over parental property. Hindu women had limited ownership, which means they could use it but were not allowed to independently sell or transfer it. However, the laws of the land have tried to make a difference when it comes to women’s inheritance rights.

In this regard, the first major step was taken when the Indian Constitution was instituted in 1950 as it held the principles of equality and non-discrimination on the grounds of sex, among other considerations. According to a paper published in the Indian Journal of Law and Legal Research (IJLLR), authored by Nivedha Devi and P. Brinda and published in 2025, titled Development Of Women’s Property Rights In India: “Articles 14, 15, and 21 of the Constitution became the cornerstone for subsequent legal reforms concerning women’s rights. However, progress in terms of property rights remained slow and incremental, often constrained by religious personal laws and societal resistance.”

The first breakthrough was when The Hindu Succession Act (HSA) of 1956 was passed. “It was an initial attempt to codify and rationalise inheritance laws among Hindus, but it still retained gender biases, particularly by denying daughters equal rights in coparcenary property under the Mitakshara system,” said the paper.

Nevertheless, HSA 1956 brought a significant reform. The Act allowed Hindu women to have full ownership over their property received through inheritance, gift, as Streedhan, etc. This entitled women to sell, gift, or transfer their property without anyone’s approval.

But there were two problems in this. First, the parent was within the rights to disinherit women in the Will, and it was only in intestate cases that women could claim their rights. Says Radhika Gaggar, partner (co-head—private client), Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, “Intestate succession for Hindus is governed by the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, which grants daughters equal rights as sons in the property of their parents who die intestate.”

The second problem was that women still didn’t have a birthright in ancestral property similar to males in a Hindu Undivided Family (HUF). That changed when the Act was amended in 2005. The HSA (Amendment), 2005 widened daughters’ rights to inherit even ancestral property. Says Gaggar: “Following the 2005 Amendment, daughters have also been recognised as coparceners alongside sons in the HUF or coparcenary property. Daughters have the same rights as sons by birth and can demand partition of such property.”

“The 2005 amendment to the HSA was a landmark reform that sought to eliminate gender discrimination by granting daughters equal coparcenary rights, placing them on par with sons in matters of inheritance and ownership in joint family property,” said the IJLLR paper mentioned earlier.

But even 10 years after the Amendment was passed, there is little difference in women’s status on inheritance due to overpowering social beliefs that favour sons. In 2015, the late Leila Seth, India’s first chief justice of a state High Court, Himachal Pradesh Court, who was then 84, spoke about inheritance laws for women at a TEDx event in Mumbai. She said: “Can the passing of laws change attitudes in India? With a very patriarchal society, changing attitudes and changing mindsets is extremely difficult… This (the laws), of course, should have made a difference, but it didn’t seem to have done that. In fact, women were not willing to assert.”

Can Laws Solve The Issue?

The fact that decades after the law has been passed in favour of women, many are still facing the same issues points to the reality that social prejudices overpower the law of the land in practice. Says Aanya Wig, co-founder and managing director of Her Haq, a youth-led non-profit organisation: “There is still a lot of stigma, and the law is still on paper. Many a times, women are coerced into giving away their share. The idea is that once a woman gets married, she belongs to another family and she should let go of the maternal side of property, especially in cases where there is a brother.”

What one also needs to understand is that there is a loophole in the law that allows women to have a share in the father’s self-acquired property. Says Chanana: “The self-acquired property (by the father) can be given away to anyone, unlike in the case of ancestral property. This way the son could be given all the property depriving the daughter of her rights in spite of the law. This is like a safety clause for the patriarchal set-up.”

Then there are associated issues such as the shame women have to bear. One of the experts shares an example where the youngest daughter, of five sisters and one brother who was the eldest, protested and went to court to claim her share. “She was shamed for this. People asked, how could she do it?”

The burden of the conflict within the family falls on women. “One of the women I spoke to compromised and did not ask for anything because even the extended family tells them to take this moral responsibility of keeping the family together,” says Chanana.

Lack of awareness is another issue. Says Wig: “A lot of times women don’t even know that they have a right in maternal property and that there are laws that favour them. There are enough legal recourses available. A woman can file a partition suit in a civil court, where she can demand the property to be divided to get her share. Women have an equal coparcenary right as men, especially after the 2005 amendment.”

She cites the definitive judgment in the Vineeta Sharma vs Rakesh Sharma Case (2020). The court held that a daughter has equal coparcenary rights by birth, just like a son, irrespective of whether the father was alive or dead, on September 9, 2005 (the date of the amendment).

But even if a woman is aware, navigating the legal system is not easy. Says Wig: “For many women, especially outside urban centres, the legal system is physically, financially, and emotionally inaccessible. Litigation requires money, time, documentation, and sustained engagement resources that many women simply do not have, particularly if they are financially dependent on their families.”

Plus, such battles are rarely between equals. Women are often litigating against male relatives with greater financial resources, family members already in possession of property and those controlling access to documents and witnesses. Says Wig. “There are also issues like missing legal documents, oral agreements, exclusion from documentation, manipulated property records, and so on.”

Then there are legal costs. Says Pooja: “Right now, my personal circumstances don’t allow me to go to a lawyer because a good lawyer is expensive in India. Also, I feel civil law is inaccessible to the common man. Nobody cares; cases drag for years together, with sometimes lawyers playing dirty on both sides. But I have no plans to officially and legally sign anything off though I am expected to do that.”

It is also about what it costs a woman socially to assert her rights. “Many women face emotional coercion, threats of being cut off from family support and carry the stigma for being ‘greedy’ or ‘breaking the family’,” says Wig. These pressures often operate quietly but powerfully, making legal remedies theoretically available but practically unusable, she adds.

What Can Work?

Awareness is one of the key issues and the will to claim what is rightfully theirs, and that needs a change in the mindset and the willingness to act for oneself. For instance, “A lot of women reach out to the courts when the property is already divided, which makes the case complicated,” says Wig.

Seeking help is advisable. “It is important to consult a lawyer who specialises in personal laws to get guidance on estate planning,” says Priyanka Desai, co-founder and partner, The Fort Circle, a law firm.

The solution lies in making women’s property rights easier to exercise than to deny, according to Wig. “That requires changes at three levels: the system, the community, and the individual. There needs to be some automation process in terms of inclusion of women. They should be considered default heirs, where they don’t have to convince revenue officers or authorities or have to prove constantly that they are heirs.”

Wig has other suggestions, such as scrutiny of consent documents where women sign off properties to male heirs, setting up of women legal aid clinics and helplines, and pushing courts to speed up cases.

Says Shweta Tungare, co-founder, LawTarazoo, an online legal service platform: “The gap between legality and reality is cultural, not judicial. To bridge it, we need three shifts. First, we must stop the rampant practice of coerced ‘relinquishment deeds’ where sisters sign away rights for ‘family peace’. Second, the government could incentivise female ownership by offering significant concessions for properties transferred to women by way of succession. Finally, financial literacy is key; women often control the household budget but are excluded from asset management. Ownership must be normalised, and should not be treated as a concession.”

“There needs to be a larger social conversation that changes the way society thinks about a woman and her access to property,” Wig adds.

Seth’s advice given 10 years ago is still relevant. She said: “Sisters, don't be emotionally blackmailed by your brothers. Demand your inheritance. Brothers, husbands, and fathers, make sure that your daughter gets her legitimate share.”

As the saying goes, change begins at home. Parents, who are now being exhorted to inculcate respect for women to reduce violence against them, also need to make their sons understand that daughters’ rights need to be respected. But first they need to understand and internalise that themselves.

nidhi@outlookindia.com

versha@outlookindia.com

Inheritance Rights Of Women

Legal rights of daughters, wives and mothers under Hindu Succession Act

Daughters' Rights

• On Parental Property: For self-acquired property of a Hindu male dying intestate, the property devolves equally among Class I heirs (mother, wife, daughters, and sons). All take an equal share.

• On Ancestral Property: Since the 2005 amendment to the Hindu Succession Act, daughters are coparceners by birth, having the same independent right as sons to demand partition. The wife and mother are not coparceners, but are entitled to a share out of the husband’s or son’s notional share during partition, says Shweta Tungare, co-founder, LawTarazoo.

Wives Rights Over Husband’s And In-Laws’ Property

• Under the Hindu Succession Act, a widow is a Class I heir entitled to an equal share in her husband’s property alongside sons, daughters, and the mother.

• However, irrespective of the religion, a wife does not have automatic succession rights to her in-laws’ property; she would only inherit from them if specifically named in their Will or through her husband’s share (if he predeceases his father) upon his demise under HSA, says Radhika Gaggar, partner (co-head - private client), Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas.

Mothers’ Rights Over Children’s Property

• Mothers’ inheritance rights also depend on the applicable personal law. Under HSA, a mother is a Class I heir entitled to an equal share alongside the widow, sons, and daughters in her son’s estate if he dies without making a Will.

• However, in case of her daughter’s intestate succession, the mother is entitled to her (daughter’s) estate only in the absence of her daughter’s children, husband, and heirs of the husband, says Gaggar.

• Also, they are vulnerable as the children may or may not name the mother in their Will and do not die intestate.

How Can Women Ensure Their Property Rights In Intestate Succession?

• Family members should ideally discuss among themselves and understand the needs and situation of all, including daughters. Daughters could then accept other assets in lieu of a share in the ancestral property.

• If required family members should attempt to mediate differences with the help of other family members and friends to arrive at an amicable distribution of assets and enter into family arrangements.

• If discussions and mediations are not successful, then daughters may consider initiating appropriate legal proceedings for preservation and enforcement of their rights by approaching the relevant authorities.

• The process begins with establishing legal status. For moveable assets, one needs to obtain a Succession Certificate from the civil court.

• For immoveable property, the heirs need to apply for a Legal Heir Certificate or a Letter of Administration, depending on the jurisdiction and value.

• Once these are secured, the final and most crucial step is 'Mutation', formally updating the revenue records or property card to reflect the new ownership. Possession without mutation is a right on paper only.

Source: Adhiraj Harish, Partner, D.M. Harish & Co. and Shweta Tungare, Co-Founder, LawTarazoo

Why Women Need To Write A Will

A crucial consideration that is not talked about much is how a woman’s property devolves when she dies intestate.

When an unmarried woman dies intestate, her assets are distributed among her mother and father.

On the other hand, intestate succession of a married Hindu woman is hierarchical. If a married woman dies intestate, as per the law, her assets are distributed first to her children and husband, and in the absence of children and husband, to the husband’s heirs (husband's side of the family). If there are no heirs of the husband, then it goes to her mother and father. If they are predeceased, the assets go to the heirs of her father, and if none, to the heirs of her mother. Many a time, dispute arises among her side and her husband’s side of the family due to this hierarchy, which places the husband’s family ahead of the wife’s family, even though the assets are self-acquired by the woman.

Even the Supreme Court bench, comprising Justices B.V.. Nagarathna and R. Mahadevan, acknowledged the gap in a public interest litigation (PIL) in November 2025, which challenged the constitutional validity of this rule in the law. The court even urged women to make a Will to avoid such disputes.

Therefore, it’s important for women to make their Will, especially if they want the beneficiaries to be from their side of the family.

Says Priyanka Desai, co-founder and partner, The Fort Circle, a law firm: “It is crucial for every woman, whether married or single, to make a Will to ensure that her self-acquired property devolves exactly in the manner she intends. This becomes especially important for married women because, if she predeceases her parents, her estate will not ordinarily devolve upon them unless she has made a Will specifically bequeathing her property in their favour. This holds particular significance for women who marry late, opt not to have children, or face challenging marriages. No one wants their hard-earned assets to fail to support their parents when needed most.”