Summary of this article
Inherited property is not automatically treated as ancestral property.
Source of ownership decides whether birthrights arise in property.
Children inherit self acquired property only through succession or Will.
A property inherited by a son from his father does not automatically make the property ancestral, the Karnataka High Court has ruled. The court said the nature of a property depends on how the previous owner acquired it, and not merely on the fact that it passed from one generation to the next.
Property’s Origin Is Key
The ruling came in a dispute where a daughter sought partition of certain family properties, claiming a share as a coparcener. However, the High Court found that she could not establish that the properties were ancestral or coparcenary (where lineal descendants (sons and daughters) automatically acquire a legal right to jointly own and inherit ancestral property by birth) in nature.
The court found that the properties had originally been purchased by her grandfather from his own earnings. They were later allotted to her father under a family arrangement. Since the properties were self-acquired in the hands of the grandfather, they did not automatically become ancestral after being transferred to the father.
The court further observed that when a person distributes his self-acquired property among his children, those properties are generally treated as the separate properties of the recipients unless there is evidence to show that they continued to retain their coparcenary character.
As a result, the daughter could not claim a share in the properties by birth. The court also clarified that rights available to daughters as coparceners under the Hindu Succession Act apply only to coparcenary property, and not to a parent’s separate property.
This does not mean that children can never inherit their father’s self-acquired property. They may still succeed to it after the father’s death under the Hindu Succession Act if there is no Will, or according to the terms of a valid Will.
Understanding Self-Acquired And Coparcenary Property
For most of India (except West Bengal and Assam), the difference between self-acquired and ancestral property is relevant under the Mitakshara system of the Hindu law.
If a property has retained its ancestral character, descendants may acquire an interest in it by birth. However, if a descendant receives property that was the father’s self-acquired property, whether through a gift, a Will, a family arrangement or a partition, it may be treated as the descendant’s separate property, depending on the circumstances.
A person has full ownership rights over self-acquired property and can sell, gift, transfer or leave it through a Will. For instance, if a father buys a house from his own earnings and later gifts it to his son, the grandson cannot automatically claim a birthright in that house.
A coparcenary exists only in relation to property that has a coparcenary character. Members have a shared interest in such property until it is partitioned. A family relationship alone does not give children a birthright in every property owned by their parents.
