The Supreme Court expanded on a Hindu woman’s right to be a joint legal heir and inherit ancestral property on terms equal to male heirs.

The ruling extends the scope of legislation introduced in 2005 to cases where the father had died before the law was introduced. Amended Hindu Succession Act, which gives daughters equal rights to ancestral property, will have a retrospective effect. The judgment agreed with lead arguments that the substituted Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 confers the status of ‘coparcener’ to a daughter born before or after the amendment in the same manner as a son. Coparcener is a person who has a birth right to parental property.

A Hindu woman’s right to be a joint heir to the ancestral property is by birth and does not depend on whether her father was alive or not when the law was enacted in 2005 the ruling said.

Before 2005, the coparceners included only sons, grandsons, and great grandsons who are holders of a joint property.

But the 2005 amendment to Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act essentially gave equal rights to daughters in ancestral property. So the amendment allowed daughters to be recognised as coparceners by birth in the family, similar to sons.