The Supreme Court has held that a widow’s failure to seek partition does not, by itself, prevent her interest in her deceased husband’s property from becoming absolute ownership under the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, the Supreme Court has held.
The Bench of Justices S.V.N. Bhatti and N.V. Anjaria dismissed an appeal brought by the legal representatives of a man who claimed that he alone had inherited his father’s properties.
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The Court upheld the Karnataka High Court’s ruling in favour of the widow’s claim, holding that the absence of a proven partition did not extinguish the right that had vested in her under the Hindu Women’s Rights to Property Act, 1937.
The dispute concerned two house properties in Terdal village, Karnataka. Their owner, Gangaram, died in 1949, leaving behind his son Ganapati from his first wife and his second wife, Kashibai. Kashibai had two daughters.
Ganapati claimed that, as the surviving male coparcener, he had become the exclusive owner of his father’s estate. After Kashibai died in 1986, one of her daughters had the properties entered in her name in municipal records on the strength of a registered will executed by Kashibai in 1984. The daughter later sold one of the properties to a third-party purchaser.
Ganapati filed a suit seeking a declaration of ownership and an injunction. Kashibai’s daughters argued that an oral partition had taken place and that the disputed properties had fallen to their mother’s share. They also relied on Kashibai’s rights as Gangaram’s widow.
The trial court found that the alleged oral partition had not been proved. It held that Kashibai had acquired only a limited interest under the 1937 Act and that, because she had not sought partition, her interest had not become absolute ownership under Section 14(1) of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956. On that basis, it held that she could not pass title through her will. The first appellate court affirmed the decision.
The Karnataka High Court reversed those findings in a second appeal. It held that Kashibai had acquired a right in her husband’s property under the 1937 Act and that her interest became absolute under Section 14(1) of the 1956 Act. The legal representatives of Ganapati challenged that ruling before the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court held that a widow’s statutory interest could not be denied merely because the family had not formally partitioned the property. Even if the defendants had failed to prove the oral partition they alleged, that failure did not undo the right Kashibai acquired when Gangaram died.
The Court explained that Section 14(1) of the 1956 Act enlarged a Hindu woman’s qualifying limited interest into absolute ownership. Referring to its earlier decisions in V. Tulasamma v. Sesha Reddy and Raghubar Singh v. Gulab Singh, it noted that the expression “possessed by” in Section 14(1) is broad and can include legal or constructive possession backed by a right or title.
The Bench said that partition was not a prerequisite for Kashibai to continue enjoying her right as an independent owner. An undivided share may fluctuate, it observed, but the absence of partition cannot be used to deny the underlying right.
The Court found no error in the High Court’s intervention under Section 100 of the Code of Civil Procedure. It dismissed the civil appeal without an order as to costs.
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