Stepdaughter entitled to property: SC

Rakesh Bhatnagar l New Delhi

In a major ruling that can be viewed as strengthening the Hindu succession law relating to property rights of women, the Supreme Court has said that a stepdaughter is entitled to share in the property of her step-father. A bench headed by justice HL Dattu dismissed a law suit filed by one Amrutbhai challenging a Gujarat high court order that had rejected his plea that neither his step mother nor her daughter, born of her first marriage, were entitled to any share in the ancestral property left behind by his father.  Amrutbhai started the litigation after the death of his step-mother and when her daughter laid claim in the share of his father. He said a stepdaughter isn’t a ‘real daughter’ of his father Devshankar Joitaram. She was in fact the daughter of one Manilal Mansukhram Suthar, the first husband of her mother, he said. “Hence, she is not heir of Devshankar Joitaram’’, he said and added she wasn’t one of the successors to the ancestral properties left behind by his father. Moreover, the property in dispute wasn’t the self acquired of his father, thus step daughter couldn’t claim a share in it. But, the top court relied on the judgments by the trial court and HC that there was presumption of ‘marriage’ between his father and the step daughter’s mother, and by that logic she had equal share in the estate left behind by her father. Source:::: DNA, 25-09-2012, p.09. http://epaper.dnaindia.com/story.aspx?id=27831&boxid=16500&ed_date=2012-9-25&ed_code=820009&ed_page=9