When You Fail to Make a Will...

Awill is like the last wishes of a man. It supersedes inheritance laws, but only for the property which is solely owned by the deceased.The rest of the assets are disposed of in accordance with the applicable succession laws.

A Hindu man does not hold absolute ownership of the inherited property, but jointly owns it with his legal heirs.A Muslim individual can write a will only for one-third of his total assets. If a person dies without writing a will, the assets and responsibilities of the deceased are divided among his heirs in accordance with the Hindu Succession Act, which is based on the proximity of relationship.“This Act applies to all Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs and any other person who is not a Muslim Christian, Parsi or Jew,”says Girish Vanvari, executive director, KPMG India.

The property of a Hindu male dying without a will is given to nearest heirs who are categorised as Class I heirs in the Hindu Succession Act.These include sons, daughters, widow and mother, among others. If there is no nearest heir, the property is given to heirs in the next line, which includes father, grandfather, grandmother, uncles and aunts, among others.

For example, if a man is survived by his wife and parents, his mother and spouse will share his property equally.The father does not have any right in this situation. If the man has a son and a daughter as well, the property gets divided into four equal parts.

“The widow succeeds to the property in equal share along with the sons and daughters of her deceased husband. If she remarries, she does not succeed to the estate of her former husband,”says Kaviraj Singh, managing partner,Trustman and Co., a Delhi-based law firm.

“Children born out of wedlock do not succeed to the estate of the deceased. Live-in partners also do not have a right to succeed to the estate of the partner,”Singh adds.

Unlike Hindu men who have only partial rights to inherited properties, women have complete ownership of all properties.They can dispose of all of their property through a will.“Property of a Hindu woman dying without a will is succeeded by her children, children of her pre-deceased children,”says Singh.

In case of Muslims, the succession is governed by religious inheritance laws, which are different for different sects.The shares of the heirs can vary in different circumstances.“Under Islamic laws of inheritance under, a son normally gets twice the share of a daughter,”says Vanvari.