General rules of succession

Two brothers die in a car accident on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, and nobody can say who died first. One was older and owned a flat; the other was younger and had no children. Whose heirs get the flat? Section 21 gives a clear rule. The same cluster of sections answers other everyday questions: do half-brothers count, what about a child not yet born, can a co-heir be forced to sell to a stranger, and what happens if nobody inherits at all?

In two minutes

Sections 18 to 22 and 29 of the Hindu Succession Act 1956 are the general rules that apply once heirs are identified: full blood beats half blood, heirs take per capita as tenants-in-common, a child in the womb inherits, the younger is presumed to survive in simultaneous deaths, co-heirs have a right of pre-emption, and the Government takes if no heir exists.

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.