Prospective coparcenary rights for daughters under amended succession law, preserving pre-cut-off partitions and settled family arrangements.

The amended Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act was construed as prospective because it confers coparcenary rights on a daughter only from the 2005 commencement date and no express or implied retrospective intent was found. The provision was read harmoniously with the proviso and Explanation to preserve valid partitions and statutory notional partitions that had already crystallised before the relevant cut-off dates. As a result, the right applies only where both the daughter and the coparcener father were alive on 9 September 2005, and partitions effected before 20 December 2004 remain unaffected.

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Issues: Whether the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 applies retrospectively so as to confer coparcenary rights on a daughter even where the father, who was a coparcener, died before the commencement of the amendment.

Analysis: The amended Section 6 expressly confers the right on a daughter of a coparcener only on and from the commencement of the Amendment Act, 2005. A substantive amendment is ordinarily prospective unless the legislature clearly provides otherwise, and no express or implied retrospective intent was found here. The proviso and the Explanation were construed harmoniously with the main provision and were held not to reopen valid partitions or statutory notional partitions that had already crystallised before the relevant cut-off dates. The provision was therefore read as protecting pre-existing transactions while operating only for living daughters of living coparceners as on the date of commencement.

Conclusion: The amendment is prospective and does not apply where the coparcener had died before 9 September 2005. The daughter's right under the amended provision is available only if she and her father were both alive on the commencement date, and partitions effected before 20 December 2004 remain unaffected.

Final Conclusion: The High Court's view on retrospectivity was rejected, the civil appeal succeeded, and the matter was remanded for fresh decision in accordance with law.

Ratio Decidendi: A substantive statutory amendment conferring coparcenary rights is prospective unless the legislature clearly indicates otherwise, and the amended Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act operates only for living daughters of living coparceners on the commencement date without disturbing valid pre-cut-off partitions.

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