Intestate succession normally works forward: a person dies without a will, and the statute names who inherits from them. For a Hindu woman dying without children, Section 15(2) of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 works backwards instead - it traces each asset to where it came from, and sends it back that way.
- Property she inherited from her father or mother devolves not on her husband or his family, but on her father’s heirs.
- Property she inherited from her husband or her father-in-law devolves on her husband’s heirs.
- The rule applies only where she leaves no son, daughter, or children of a predeceased child. Where there are children, the ordinary rules take over and the source of the property stops mattering.
No Equivalent Provision Applies to Hindu Men
There is no counterpart to this anywhere in the Act for men. Section 8, which governs a Hindu male dying intestate, distributes his estate to his own heirs without asking where any particular asset originated. A man who inherits a flat from his father and dies childless passes it to his own heirs; a woman in the identical position passes it back to her father’s heirs. The asymmetry is in the statute, not in the facts.
The Rule Is Under Challenge and May Not Survive
The provision is under constitutional challenge on equality grounds, with a batch of petitions still pending before the Supreme Court - though the lead petition, Kamal Anant Khopkar v. Union of India, was itself disposed of after the petitioner settled her own inheritance dispute. The position may not be permanent.
While it stands, it makes a will unusually consequential for a childless Hindu woman with inherited assets. Section 15(2) only governs where there is no will; a valid will displaces it entirely. Without one, the default is not simply “her heirs” but a division that depends on the history of each individual asset - and one that will often surprise the family members on both sides of it.
Write the will. For a childless Hindu woman holding inherited assets, Section 15(2) governs only where there is none - and the default is not simply her heirs but a division that turns on the history of each individual asset, usually to the surprise of both sides of the family.
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