skills/hindu-succession-calculator/references/statutory-rules.md

# Statutory rules reference

## Source and scope

Primary source: [The Hindu Succession Act, 1956, Act No. 30 of 1956 - India Code PDF](https://www.indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/1713/1/AAA1956suc___30.pdf).

The supplied official consolidation is the starting point, not proof that no later amendment, notification, State law, or binding judgment applies. Verify the law in force on the relevant death date and in the relevant jurisdiction before calling a complex result calculated.

This skill calculates intestate shares. Section 30 recognizes testamentary disposition but sends will questions to the Indian Succession Act, 1925 or other applicable law.

## Applicability and exclusions

- **Section 2:** Apply the Act to Hindus in its stated inclusive sense, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, and specified others. Do not apply it to Scheduled Tribe members unless the required Central notification applies.
- **Section 3:** Use the statutory definitions of agnate, cognate, full blood, half blood, uterine blood, heir, intestate, and related.
- **Section 4:** Give the Act overriding effect subject to its express exceptions.
- **Section 5:** Screen the listed excluded properties, including succession regulated by the Indian Succession Act because of section 21 of the Special Marriage Act.

## Section 6 coparcenary gate

For a post-9 September 2005 death involving Mitakshara coparcenary property:

1. Treat a daughter of a coparcener as a coparcener by birth with the same rights and liabilities as a son.
2. Protect dispositions, alienations, partitions, and testamentary dispositions before 20 December 2004 as stated in section 6(1).
3. Deem a partition immediately before death to determine the deceased coparcener's interest under section 6(3).
4. At that deemed partition, allot daughters the same share as sons and preserve the specified branches of predeceased children.
5. Send only the deceased's resulting interest into testamentary or intestate succession.
6. Treat a qualifying pre-20 December 2004 partition under section 6(5) according to its statutory definition.

Return `LEGAL_REVIEW_REQUIRED` when title, coparcenary membership, the applicable historical version, a partition, alienation, adoption, separation, or the effect of case law is disputed or cannot be established reliably.

## Male intestate succession: sections 8 to 13

Apply this priority:

1. Class I heirs simultaneously, excluding everyone else.
2. If none, the first occupied Class II entry, excluding later entries.
3. If none, agnates.
4. If none, cognates.
5. If no qualified heir, section 29 escheat to Government subject to obligations and liabilities.

### Section 10 Class I unit tree

Create one top-level unit for each of:

- all surviving widows together;
- each surviving son;
- each surviving daughter;
- the surviving mother;
- each qualifying branch of a predeceased son;
- each qualifying branch of a predeceased daughter.

Divide the estate interest equally among the top-level units.

Within a predeceased son's branch, create equal sub-units for:

- his widow, or all his widows together;
- each surviving son;
- each surviving daughter;
- each qualifying branch of his predeceased son.

Within a predeceased daughter's branch, divide equally among her surviving sons and daughters.

Follow the current Class I Schedule entries for deeper represented descendants. Do not invent representation beyond the Schedule or Rule 4.

### Section 11 Class II

Select only the first entry containing an eligible heir. Divide equally among eligible heirs in that entry.

### Sections 12 and 13 agnates/cognates

Within the applicable group:

1. Prefer fewer or no degrees of ascent.
2. If ascent is tied, prefer fewer or no degrees of descent.
3. If neither candidate is preferred, let them take simultaneously.

Compute degrees inclusive of the intestate; every generation is a degree. Request review if a relationship path is uncertain.

## Female intestate succession: sections 15 and 16

### General section 15(1) order

Use the first occupied entry only:

1. sons and daughters, including children of any predeceased son or daughter, and husband;
2. heirs of husband;
3. mother and father;
4. heirs of father;
5. heirs of mother.

Persons in one entry take simultaneously. Under section 16 Rule 2, children of a predeceased son or daughter divide the share their parent would have taken.

For heirs of husband, father, or mother, apply section 16 Rule 3: calculate in the same order and under the same rules as if that person had died intestate immediately after the female intestate's death.

### Section 15(2) source exceptions

- Property inherited from father or mother: when no son, daughter, or child of a predeceased son or daughter exists, devolve on heirs of the father.
- Property inherited from husband or father-in-law: under the same absence condition, devolve on heirs of the husband.
- **Kerala section 15(2)(c):** property inherited from a predeceased son devolves on the heirs of that predeceased son instead of the general section 15(1) order. Confirm that the Kerala amendment governs the case.

Do not apply a source exception merely because property came from a relative by gift, will, purchase, maintenance, or partition; establish that it was legally inherited for section 15(2).

## General provisions

- **Section 18:** Prefer full blood to half blood only when the nature of relationship is otherwise the same.
- **Section 19:** Co-heirs take per capita unless the Act expressly provides otherwise, and as tenants-in-common.
- **Section 20:** A child in the womb at death and later born alive inherits as if born before death, with vesting from the death date.
- **Section 21:** If survival order is uncertain, presume the younger survived the elder until the contrary is proved.
- **Section 22:** Concerns preferential acquisition on a proposed transfer, not the initial fraction. Mention it when relevant; do not change the inherited fraction.
- **Sections 23 and 24:** Omitted from 9 September 2005. Do not use the former dwelling-house or widow-remarriage exclusions for later deaths.
- **Section 25:** A murderer or abettor is disqualified as stated.
- **Section 26:** Apply only to children born after a Hindu's conversion and their descendants, unless Hindu when succession opens. Conversion alone does not disqualify the convert under this section.
- **Section 27:** Treat a disqualified person as having died before the intestate, then rerun the applicable branch rules.
- **Section 28:** Do not disqualify for disease, defect, or deformity, or any non-statutory ground.
- **Section 29:** If no qualified heir exists, property devolves on Government subject to the relevant obligations and liabilities.

## Schedule

### Class I

Son; daughter; widow; mother; son of a predeceased son; daughter of a predeceased son; son of a predeceased daughter; daughter of a predeceased daughter; widow of a predeceased son; son of a predeceased son of a predeceased son; daughter of a predeceased son of a predeceased son; widow of a predeceased son of a predeceased son; son of a predeceased daughter of a predeceased daughter; daughter of a predeceased daughter of a predeceased daughter; daughter of a predeceased son of a predeceased daughter; daughter of a predeceased daughter of a predeceased son.

### Class II entries

1. Father.
2. Son's daughter's son; son's daughter's daughter; brother; sister.
3. Daughter's son's son; daughter's son's daughter; daughter's daughter's son; daughter's daughter's daughter.
4. Brother's son; sister's son; brother's daughter; sister's daughter.
5. Father's father; father's mother.
6. Father's widow; brother's widow.
7. Father's brother; father's sister.
8. Mother's father; mother's mother.
9. Mother's brother; mother's sister.

Schedule references to brother or sister exclude uterine-blood siblings.

## Mandatory review triggers

Require review rather than forcing a single share when any of these controls the result:

- validity, scope, revocation, or construction of a will;
- disputed marriage, divorce, adoption, parentage, legitimacy, death order, or date;
- Scheduled Tribe notification or Special Marriage Act interaction;
- disputed ownership or characterization as ancestral/coparcenary property;
- pre-2005 death, State amendment, oral partition, unregistered partition, or disputed pre-20 December 2004 transaction;
- Kerala or another State's historical joint-family system beyond the supplied central consolidation;
- property governed by tenancy, agricultural, land-reform, customary, trust, endowment, or other special law;
- nomination or survivorship terms claimed to override beneficial succession;
- murder/abetment or conversion status not established by reliable facts;
- a relationship path or branch not clearly covered by the Schedule;
- need for current binding case-law interpretation.