Hindu Succession Act, 1956 – s.14(1) – Property of a female
Hindu to be her absolute property – Right of the legal heir
of Hindu widow to enforce her right of succession in the
unpartitioned joint hindu family property by virtue of s.14(1),
when neither the widow nor her legal heir in possession of
the suit land:
Held: For establishing full ownership on the undivided joint family
estate u/s. 14(1), the Hindu female must not only be possessed
of the property but she must have acquired the property and such
acquisition must be either by way of inheritance or devise, or at
a partition or in lieu of maintenance or arrears of maintenance
or by gift or be her own skill or exertion, or by purchase or by
prescription – On going through the pleadings in the Revenue
suit for partition filed by legal heir, it is clear that that the widow
or the legal heir himself were never in possession of the suit
property – As a matter of fact, the suit was filed by pleading that
the suit property was a joint Hindu family property and appellantbeneficiary of the unpartitioned estate by way of Will, had consented
to give half share of the suit property to the legal heir on his
demand – This assertion was denied by appellant – Widow was
never in possession of the suit property because the civil suit
was filed by her claiming the relief of title as well as possession
and the same was dismissed and she was held only entitled to
receive maintenance from the undivided estate – This finding of
the civil Court was never challenged – Since, widow was never
in possession of the suit property, as a necessary corollary the
Revenue suit for partition claiming absolute ownership u/s. 14(1)
could not be maintained by her adopted son, plaintiff by virtue
of inheritance – Thus, the impugned judgments restoring the
judgment and decree of the Revenue Court that the plaintiff being
the sole legal heir of the widow has coparcenary rights over the
lands belonging to widow’s husband, cannot be sustained and
are set aside
[2024] 6 S.C.R. 298 : 2024 INSC 428
