The High Court of Kerala has ruled that daughters are entitled to equal coparcenary rights under the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, even in the face of the earlier Kerala Joint Hindu Family System (Abolition) Act, 1975.
A bench of Justice Easwaran S. held that the 2005 Amendment to the Hindu Succession Act confers daughters equal coparcenary rights by birth, which Parliament intended to apply universally, including in Kerala. The Kerala Act of 1975 does not explicitly abolish the joint family system, but merely replaced joint tenancy with tenancy-in-common and removed birth rights. Therefore, it cannot override the central law on succession post-2005.
The bench stated that the doctrine of repugnancy under Article 254 of the Constitution applies in this case. Since both central and state laws fall under the Concurrent List, and the central law was enacted later, the 2005 Amendment prevails. The previous judgments of this court in Ayillalath Arunapriya and Kali Ammal, which denied the applicability of the 2005 Amendment in Kerala, do not lay down the correct law and are overruled.
The case involved a family dispute over the partition of ancestral property originally belonging to the Nambidi Parambath Tharawad. The appellants—daughters of the deceased—had filed a suit seeking partition, asserting that they were entitled to equal shares as per the 2005 Amendment. The trial court dismissed the suit based on the validity of a will favoring the son. However, the first appellate court partly upheld their claim and granted a preliminary decree allotting them fractional shares.
At the heart of the legal conflict was whether the Kerala Joint Hindu Family System (Abolition) Act, 1975—which abolished the doctrine of right by birth and deemed partitioned joint family properties—could override the central legislation that later reinstated coparcenary rights for daughters.
The court emphasized that a daughter’s rights under the 2005 amendment are not dependent on whether her father or coparcener was alive at the time of the amendment. The ruling extensively cited the Supreme Court’s decision in Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma (2020) to reiterate the legal standing of daughters in Mitakshara coparcenary property.
Case Details
Case Title: N.P.Rajani Versus Radha Nambidi Parambath
Case No.: RSA NO. 436 OF 2018
Date: 7/07/2025
Counsel For Petitioner: Nirmal.S, Veena Hari
Counsel For Respondent: Shyam Padman
Read More: Kerala High Court Upholds Daughters’ Coparcenary Rights Under Hindu Succession Amendment Act, 2005
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