Stepchildren and their rights in Coparcenary ancestral property
The issue of property rights in the ancestral property has always been a contentious one. It is not easy to determine the same. It is advisable to get proper legal guidance and advice from legal experts dealing in property law.
Ancestral property — understanding the basics
Ancestral property is the property which has passed on up to four generations (lineal descendants), of a common ancestor, including the last holder of the property, without any division. The last holder of the property is the eldest surviving male member. It is the property inherited from an ancestor.
The term coparceners refer to a small unit of lineal descendants of a common ancestor within the undivided Hindu family. Earlier only male lineal descendants were considered as coparceners. But after the amendment of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 in the year 2005, daughters are also coparceners now.
Coparcenary ancestral property is the one which has passed on up to the four generations of lineal descendants constituting coparcenary. The coparceners have a birthright in such property.
Rights of Stepchildren in the ancestral property:
The Hindu Succession Act deals with the property rights in the ancestral, and self-acquired property. For considering rights of the stepson or stepdaughter, it is significant to understand the concept of “son” or “daughter” under the Hindu Succession Act.
The expression “son” or a “daughter” has not been defined under the Act. In ordinary parlance, the phrases refer to the direct blood relationship. However, under the Act, the adopted children of the deceased are included in the term. But the stepchildren are not included in the same for inheritance purposes.
Stepchild for the father and his rights:
For a father, a Stepchild is the one who is born to the wife from her previous marriage. Such a child cannot be a coparcener as he is not a lineal descendant of a common ancestor. Therefore, he has no right to the coparcenary ancestral property.
Under the Hindu Succession Act, when a male dies intestate, the property gets devolved as per section 8 of the Act. Stepchildren (either son or daughter) are not included in the list of the heirs. Thus the stepchildren have no right to the property of the father.
However, such a stepchild will have a right in the share of the ancestral property fallen to her mother from her father (i.e. maternal grandfather of the child). This property can be claimed only after the death of the mother.
Stepchild for the mother and his rights:
For a mother, the stepchild is the child born to her husband from the previous marriage.
The mother herself is a coparcener for inheriting her father’s ancestral property. The children of the mother also have a right in this ancestral property. They can claim their share after the death of the mother as heirs of the mother.
However, if the child is a stepchild of the mother, he/she does not have any right in this property.
But when the mother dies, such a stepchild gets a right in the ancestral property not as an heir of the mother but as an heir of the husband of the female (mother) as per section 15 of the HSA.
Stepchildren thus have limited rights in the ancestral property.
