Disqualification relating to succession

Films love the scene where the villain kills the rich uncle and then turns up for the reading of the will. Real law has a rule for this, and it is older than cinema: a person should not profit from his own wrong. Hindu succession law also has a rule that surprises students, which is that a disease, a disability or even some serious personal choices do not cost anyone their inheritance. Sections 25 to 28 set out exactly who is out and who is not.

In two minutes

Under the Hindu Succession Act, only two persons are disqualified: a murderer (or abettor of murder) of the person whose property is in question, and the post-conversion descendants of a Hindu who has left the religion; any disqualified heir is treated as dead before the intestate, and disease, defect or deformity is never a ground (ss.25 to 28).

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Family Law – II on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.