Section 16 legitimacy is limited by Section 16(3); children of void marriages cannot claim ancestral coparcenary property.

Children born of a void or voidable marriage are treated as legitimate under Section 16 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, but that statutory fiction is expressly limited by Section 16(3). The provision bars any claim to property of persons other than the parents, including ancestral coparcenary property, and the object of removing stigma cannot expand that restriction by implication. On that interpretation, such children cannot inherit in property beyond their parents' property, so the challenge was rejected and the appeal dismissed.

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Issues: Whether children born of a void marriage can, by virtue of Section 16 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, claim rights in ancestral coparcenary property beyond the property of their parents.

Analysis: Section 16 was enacted to remove the stigma of illegitimacy from children born of void or voidable marriages by treating them as legitimate. However, the statutory fiction is expressly confined by sub-section (3), which states that such children do not acquire rights in the property of persons other than their parents. The non obstante clause leaves no scope for extending the fiction by implication or by reference to the general object of the provision. Any broader interpretation would contradict the express legislative mandate and amount to rewriting the statute.

Conclusion: The children born of the void marriage had no right in the ancestral coparcenary property of persons other than their parents. The challenge was therefore rejected and the appeal was dismissed against the appellants.

Ratio Decidendi: The legitimacy conferred by Section 16 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 is limited by Section 16(3), and children of void or voidable marriages cannot claim inheritance in property other than that of their parents.

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