True: In a landmark decision, Supreme Court ensures the unconditional right of a daughter to her parents property.

By: Priyam Nayak
August 12 2020

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The Supreme Court has ruled that daughters will have equal coparcenary rights in joint Hindu family property even if the father died before 2005. On August 11, 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that daughters will have equal coparcenary (joint-heirship) rights in joint Hindu family property even if the father died before the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005. coparcenor is a term used for a person who assumes a legal right in the parental property by birth only. The bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra was answering a reference based on conflicting decisions given by past verdicts of the top court. Although the amendment applied to Hindu daughters as coparceners who died after the act, there was no clarity on whether it will have retrospective effect. In 2016, the Supreme Court decided that such right will not be retrospective in Prakash v Phulwati case whiles in 2018, another bench of the court in Danamma v Amar held it to be retrospective. The bench said, 'daughters cannot be deprived of their right to equality conferred by Section 6 of the Act.' Daughters will have the right over parental property even if the coparcenor had died prior to the coming into force of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, it added. The amendment came into effect on September 9, 2005. The courts considered this as a cut-off date to decide pleas by daughters seeking equal rights as coparcenors as sons in their father's estate.