Karnataka HC Rules on Inheritance Rights

The Karnataka High Court recently ruled that property inherited by a father from his own father's self-acquired assets does not automatically become ancestral property for his children.

In the case of Smt.

Usha N. Swamy v.

Sri M. Venkataswamy & Ors., the court dismissed a woman's claim for an equal share in properties that originally belonged to her grandfather.

The court held that since the assets were the grandfather's self-acquired properties, she could not claim a right in them by birth.

The court clarified that coparcenary rights by birth arise only in ancestral or coparcenary property, not in self-acquired property.

Daughters have the same coparcenary rights as sons, but these rights do not extend to self-acquired property.

Children do not have a birthright in a father’s self-acquired property during his lifetime and can only inherit such property if the father dies without leaving a will or if a share is specifically given to them under the will.