A Will Reaches Self-Acquired Property, Not Ancestral

“Can I leave a child out of my will?” has two opposite correct answers under Hindu law, and which one applies depends entirely on how the asset in question was acquired.

Self-acquired property - anything earned, bought, or received as a gift or bequest by the testator themselves - can be willed to anyone at all. There is no forced heirship for Hindus, no reserved share a child is entitled to. A parent can leave the entire self-acquired estate to one child, to a stranger, or to a charity, and a disappointed heir has no claim on the property as such.

A Coparcener’s Share Was Never the Testator’s to Give

Ancestral property works on a different principle entirely. In a Hindu Undivided Family, coparceners acquire their interest by birth, not by inheritance from the previous holder. The interest already belongs to them during the older generation’s lifetime. A will operates on what the testator owns at death - and a coparcener’s share was never the testator’s to give away. What can be willed is the testator’s own undivided share, not the whole.

The Same Will Can Be Effective on One Asset and Void on Another

The practical effect is that the same sentence in the same will can be fully effective as to one asset and entirely ineffective as to another. A flat bought by the testator with their own income can be left wherever they choose. A share in an ancestral property cannot be routed around the coparceners who hold it by birth, however clearly the will attempts to.

This is why the first question in an Indian estate plan is usually classificatory rather than dispositional: not “who should get what” but “which of these assets is actually mine to direct.” The answer determines whether the will is the operative instrument at all, or whether the property was already spoken for before the will was written.

Classify before you dispose. The first question in an Indian estate plan is not who should receive what, but which of these assets is actually yours to direct - and for ancestral property the answer was settled at birth, long before the will was drafted.