The Supreme Court has clarified (on 11-Aug-2020) that daughters will have equal coparcenary (joint-heirship) rights in joint Hindu family property even if the father died before the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005. Since the right in coparcenary is by birth, father coparcener doesn’t need to be living as on September 9, 2005.
The daughters confer the status of ‘coparcener’ whether they were born before or after an amendment to Hindu Succession Act (2005) in the same manner as a son with the same rights and liabilities. (Coparcener is a term used for a person who assumes a legal right in parental property by birth only.)
The verdict also makes it clear the amendment to the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, granting equal rights to daughters to inherit ancestral property, would have a retrospective effect.
