Karnataka High Court Rules Coparcenary Rights Limited to Ancestral Properties

Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has clarified that coparcenary rights under Hindu law apply solely to ancestral properties and not to self-acquired assets. The ruling came in a case involving a woman seeking a share in properties originally owned by her grandfather.

A division bench comprising Justices DK Singh and TM Nadaf dismissed an appeal filed by Usha N Swamy, who had sought a share in her grandfather Muniyappa's properties. The court emphasized that rights by birth under Hindu law arise only in ancestral joint family properties and not in self-acquired assets.

In its judgment dated June 16, the court explained that under Hindu law, a person’s sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons acquire an interest by birth only when the property is inherited from one of the three immediate paternal ancestors or devolves under Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, as amended on September 9, 2005.

Usha, who married in 1979 and resides in Illinois, USA, filed a civil suit in 2014. She sought a share in properties that included 107 acres in Kannayana Agrahara village in Anekal taluk, a site in Jayanagar 4th T Block, agricultural lands in Kengeri hobli, and a house in Pattabhirama Nagar. She claimed these were ancestral properties in which she held coparcenary rights.

The suit followed the sale of 10 acres of land by her father, M Venkataswamy. However, the court ruled that the properties in question were not ancestral but self-acquired, and thus, Usha’s claim was not valid under the law.