LAW 203 (II) – Hindu Law

Exclusion from Inheritance

Course Instructor - Dr. Nabaat Tasnima Mahbub

 Exclusion from Inheritance

The Smriti law declares that persons labouring under certain disabilities are excluded from
inheritance.

According to Manu, “Impotent persons and outcastes, persons born blind or deaf, the insane,
the idiots and the dumb as well as those deficient in any organ of action or sensation receive no
share”.

Yajnavalkya says, “An impotent person, an outcaste and his issue, one lame, a mad man, an
idiot, a blind man and a person afflicted with an incurable disease are persons not entitled to a
share”.
 Causes of Exclusion

The cause of exclusion as per Hindu law may be classified as follows:

∙ Religious Grounds

∙ Moral Grounds

∙ Mental Grounds

∙ Physical Grounds

∙ Other Grounds
 Religious Grounds

Change of religion and loss of caste

Change of religion and loss of caste which at one time were grounds for forfeiture of
property and of exclusion from inheritance ceased to be so after the passing of the Caste
Disabilities Removal Act, 1850.

This Act applies only to protect the actual person who either renounces his religion or
has been excluded from the communion of any religion.

Once a person has changed his religion and his personal law that law will govern the
rights of succession in his children.
 Religious Grounds

Adoption of Religious Order

Where a person enters into religious order renouncing all worldly affairs, his
action is tantamount to civil death and it excludes him from inheritance.
Neither he nor his natural relatives can succeed to each other’s properties.
 Moral Grounds

Unchastity
Unchastity as a ground of exclusion applies to the widow under the Mitakshara law and not to other
female heirs.
But according to the Dayabhaga school, condition of chastity applies not only to the widow but also to
other female heirs.
Unchastity excludes a female from inheriting to a male but not to a female. So it is not a bar to
inheriting stridhana even according to Dayabhaga law.
Murder
A murderer is disqualified from succeeding to the estate of the murdered man upon the principles of
justice, equity and good conscience.
Not only is the murderer excluded from inheritance but also his son or any other person claiming
heirship through him.
 Mental Grounds

Insanity
Insanity need not be congenital or incurable to exclude the heir from inheritance.
It is enough if it exists at the time when the succession opens.
Idiocy
As to mental infirmity, it is sufficient if the person is and has been from his birth of such an
unsound and imbecile mind as to be incapable of instruction or of discriminating between
right and wrong.
Mere want of sound or even ordinary intelligence is not sufficient.
 Physical Grounds

Blindness, deafness and dumbness

Where it is sought to exclude an heir on the ground that he is blind, deaf or dumb, it is
necessary to show that these defects are incurable and congenital.
Want of any limb or organ
Want of any limb or organ, if congenital is treated as disqualification.
Lameness and deprivation of the use of any limb or organ must be not only congenital but
absolute or complete.
It also includes the case of congenital impotence.
 Physical Grounds

Leprosy
Leprosy need not be congenital.
Some cases of leprosy are of a mild and curable form while others are of a virulent and aggravated type
and incurable.
It is only the latter form of malady which causes inability to inherit.
Leprosy which does not preclude a person from performing social and religious ceremonies in company
with others, it would not preclude him from inheritance.
Other incurable diseases
It is difficult to say whether other incurable diseases disqualify a person from inheritance.
In such a case strictest proof of the incurability of the disease must be given.
 Other Grounds

o Remarriage
The second marriage of a widow was formerly unlawful except where it was sanctioned by custom.
Remarriage of widows is now legalized in all cases by the Hindu Widows Remarriage Act, 1856.
But the Act provides that all rights and interests which a widow may have in her deceased husband’s estate
shall cease on her marriage as if she had died. So a widow forfeits her estate on her remarriage.
Illegitimacy
Illegitimate children had no right of inheritance except in the case of their mother’s stridhana.
The Hindu Inheritance (Removal of Disabilities) Act, 1928 has laid down that no person, other than a person
who is and has been from birth a lunatic or an idiot shall be excluded from inheritance by reason only of his
disease or physical or mental defect. The Act, however, does not apply to any person governed by the
Dayabhaga school of Hindu law.
 Effect of Disabilities

Where an heir is disqualified, the next heir of the deceased succeeds as if the disqualified person
were dead.
The disqualified person transmits no interest to his heir.
The disability is personal and it does not extend to the legitimate issue of the disqualified heir. But
adopted sons of disqualified heirs are not entitled to this heritable right.
Property which has once vested in a person by inheritance is not divested by a subsequently
supervening disability.
 Effect of Disabilities

Where the disability is removed subsequent to the opening of the inheritance, the right of
inheritance revives but not so as to divest the estate already vested in another person.
Where after the succession has opened, a son is born to a disqualified heir, the son is not entitled
to inherit so as to divest the estate already vested in another.
Where a person is excluded from inheritance on account of disabilities, he and his wife and
children are entitled to maintenance out of the property which he would have inherited.
Removal of Disabilities by Legislative Enactment

The Disable Person’s Right to Protection Act, 2013

This enactment has removed the mental, physical bars which deprives a person from the right
to inherit property.
This law is applicable to all the citizens of Bangladesh irrespective of religion. Hence, this law
is applicable for the Hindus as well.
Under Section 16(3) of the Act, no one is to be excluded from inheritance due to any
disabilities.
However, the Act does not provide any clear guideline for the grounds relating to un-chastity
and moral turpitude of women. Therefore, the Shastric Hindu law shall be followed in this
respect.
Removal of Disabilities by Legislative Enactment

In India, reforms have been made to the rules regarding disabilities and exclusion from
inheritance by the Hindu Succession Act, 1955. This law is not applicable for the Hindus in
Bangladesh.
Section 28 of the Act provides that no person shall be excluded from inheritance on the ground of
any disease, defect or deformity or any grounds except as provided by the Act.
The Act also prescribes that murderers, non-Hindu Children born after conversion and their
descendants, and widows remarried before the opening of the succession are disqualified from
succeeding.