My father died without a will. Who inherits, and in what shares?

Intestate succession for Hindus is governed by the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, and it applies to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs. Muslims, Christians, Parsis and those married under the Special Marriage Act are governed by different rules.

A Hindu male dying intestate

The property devolves first upon the heirs in Class I of the Schedule. They take simultaneously and to the exclusion of all others, and each takes an equal share. Class I includes:

• The widow
• Sons and daughters, who take equally
• The mother
• Children of a predeceased son or daughter, and the widow of a predeceased son, who take the share their parent or husband would have taken

Note who is not in Class I: the father, and brothers and sisters. They fall in Class II and inherit only if there is no Class I heir at all.

A Hindu female dying intestate

Section 15 sets a different order. Her property goes first to her sons, daughters including children of a predeceased child, and her husband; then to the husband's heirs; then to her mother and father; then to the father's heirs; then the mother's heirs. Section 16 adds a source rule: property she inherited from her father or mother goes back to the father's heirs if she leaves no children, and property inherited from her husband or father-in-law goes to the husband's heirs in the same circumstances.

What to do practically

1. Obtain the death certificate and a legal heir certificate.
2. For bank deposits and securities, obtain a succession certificate where the institution requires it.
3. For immovable property, apply for mutation in the revenue records in the names of the heirs.
4. If the heirs wish to divide unequally or consolidate shares, execute a registered release deed or partition deed.

Coparcenary property follows the survivorship and notional partition rules in Section 6 rather than the simple Class I distribution, so where there is ancestral property, the computation is more involved and worth taking advice on.