Succession among Christians
The law that lays down the rules of distribution of property of a Christian dying intestate (without making a Will), is the Indian Succession Act, 1925 (ISA).
The Indian Succession Act, 1865, Cochin Christian Succession Act, 1921, Travancore Christian Succession Act, 1916 etc applicable to Christians in the past were repealed and consolidated into ISA.
Legal provisions of ISA applicable
The Sections 31 to 49 of ISA deal with rules of Christian succession.
A Christian who dies intestate, as per Section 32 of ISA, will have three categories of legal heirs: they are the Spouse, Lineal Descendants and the Kindred.
The Section 24 of ISA refers to the concept of kindred or consanguinity. The term is defined as the “connection or relation of persons descended from the same stock or common ancestor”. Kindred of an intestate can be descendants such as children, grandchildren, ascendants such as his father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, or collaterals such as his brothers, sisters and their descendants, or his uncles, cousins and other relations, who are not the descendants of the siblings of the deceased.
The Section 25 of ISA defines “lineal consanguinity” as the descendants in a direct line such as man and his father, grandfather and great grandfather, children and grandchildren etc. Lineal descendants mean all those who are directly related to the deceased and are living at the time of distribution of the property.
Who is an Indian Christian?
An Indian Christian, as per Section 2(d) of ISA, means a native of India who is, or in good faith claims to be, of unmixed Asiatic descent and who professes any form of the Christian religion.
The succession to the movable property in India of the deceased, as per Section 5 of ISA, will be governed by the law of the country where he had his domicile at the time of his death. But the succession to his immovable property will be governed by the law of India, wherever he had his domicile at the time of his death.
A person can have only one domicile for the purpose of succession to his movable property, as per Section 6 of ISA.
What is meant by dying intestate?
A person is deemed to died intestate in respect of all property of which he has not made a testamentary dispossession which is capable of taking effect, as per Section 30 of ISA.
Therefore, any property, which has not already been bequeathed or allocated as per a Will, devolves on his death as per the Rules 31 to 49 of ISA.
When the widow and lineal descendants remain
Where an intestate has left a widow and lineal descendants, such as children and grandchildren, one-third of his property shall belong to the widow, and the remaining two third shall go to the lineal descendants (Section 33).
If the intestate has left the widow, no lineal descendants but some people who are kindred to him the widow will get one-half and the remaining one-half to be shared by the kindred.
If the intestate has left the widow, no lineal descendants and no kindred, then the entire property will devolve on to the widow/widower.
The law applicable to a widow will be applicable to a widower who survives his wife, under Section 35 of ISA.
Rules for succession among lineal descendants
If the intestate has left only a child or children and no more lineal descendants, then the property belongs to the surviving child, or equally divided amongst the surviving children (Section 37).
If the intestate has left no child, but only a grandchild or grandchildren and no more remote descendant through deceased grandchild, then the property belongs to the surviving grandchild or is equally divided amongst the surviving grandchildren (Section 38).
If the intestate has left only great-grandchildren or other remote lineal descendants to the same degree, then the property belongs to the surviving great-grandchildren or other remote lineal descendants, equally for both males and females (Section 39).
If the intestate has left lineal descendants who do not stand in the same degree of kindred to him, and the persons through whom the more remote are descended are dead, then the property shall be shared equally by all the lineal descendants of the intestate who stand in the nearest degree of the kindred to him at the time of his death, or of the like degree of the kindred to him, who died before him leaving lineal descendants (Section 40).
Succession laws when there are no lineal descendants
If the intestate’s father is living, the widow will get one-half of the share and the father of the deceased will get one-half of the share. The father will get the whole, if the widow of intestate is no more, irrespective of the fact that others among the kindred are alive (Section 40).
Where the intestate’s father is dead, but his mother, brothers, and sisters are living, then the widow will get one-half share and the remaining one-half share will be divided equally between mother, sisters, and brothers or full share to be shared equally between them, if widow of intestate is alive (Section 43).
Where the intestate’s father is dead and his mother, a brother or sister, and children of any deceased brother or sister, are living then the widow will get one half share and the remaining one-half share will be divided equally per stirpes by mother, brother, sister and children of deceased brother or sister. Such children (if more than one) would equally divide the share of their deceased parent amongst themselves (Section 44).
Where the intestate’s father is dead and his mother and children of any deceased brother or sister are living then the widow will have one half share, and the remaining one-half share will be divided equally per stirpes by mother and children of deceased brother and sister. Such children if there are more than one, would equally divide the share of their deceased parent amongst themselves (Section 45).
Where the intestate’s father is dead, but his mother is living and has no brother, sister, nephew, or niece, then the widow will get one-half share and the mother will get the remaining one-half share. If no widow of the intestate, then the entire property will go to the mother (Section 46).
Where intestate has left neither lineal descendant, nor father, nor mother, then the widow will get one-half share and remaining one-half share will be equally divided per stirpes between his brothers and sisters and children of deceased brothers and sisters. Such children, if more than one, would equally divide the share of their deceased parent amongst themselves (Section 47).
When no widow, lineal descendants or kindred
Where intestate has left neither parent, nor lineal descendant, nor any sibling, the widow will get one-half share and the remaining one-half share will be divided equally amongst the kindred who are at the nearest degree to the intestate such as grand-father and grand-mother. The property will be equally shared by them.
Any surviving uncles, aunts, great-grandfather, great-grandmother will be excluded as they are third-degree kindred. On the other hand, if second-degree kindred is not living, then the property will be equally divided amongst all the kindred in the third-degree, fourth-degree kindred will be excluded, and so on (Section 48).
If no heirs, government will have the property
If there are no heirs whatsoever to the intestate, as per the doctrine of escheat, the property will devolve on to the Government.
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