In the case of Vijayan v. Appukuttan @ Pairaj [2026: KER:8018], the Kerala High Court ruled that a husband — belonging to the Christian faith — convicted of his wife’s murder is legally disqualified from inheriting her property, even though the Indian Succession Act, 1925, the law governing his succession, does not explicitly provide for such a disqualification.
In this case, the High Court applied the common law principle that a person who intentionally kills another cannot profit from their crime, and by examining the precedents established, held that courts can apply common law doctrines where a statute is silent, provided they do not infringe upon constitutional principles.
The substantive issue in this second appeal was whether a person convicted of “dowry death” under IPC Sections 498A (cruelty) and 304B (dowry death) can lay claim to the victim’s property under the Indian Succession Act, 1925.
The High Court reversed the concurrent decisions of both the trial court and the appellate court, which had allowed the husband to inherit property held in the wife’s name on the ground that the 1925 Act lacked a specific disqualification clause akin to the one found in the Hindu Succession Act, 1956.
