Inheritance under Hindu Succession law makes a son's share separate property, excluding ancestral character and HUF taxation.

Property inherited by a son from his divided father was treated as the son's separate and individual property, because the Hindu Succession Act overrides the earlier uncodified Hindu law to the extent of inconsistency. Under section 8, the intestate estate devolves on the Class I heirs simultaneously and to the exclusion of others, so the son alone succeeded and the grandson was excluded. The earlier rule that inherited property could take an ancestral character in the son's hands was held inapplicable where statutory devolution under the Act governs. The income from such property was therefore not assessable in the hands of the Hindu undivided family.

---

---

Issues: Whether the properties inherited by a son from his divided father constituted his separate and individual properties or joint family properties, and whether the income from such properties was assessable in the hands of the Hindu undivided family.

Analysis: The statutory scheme of the Hindu Succession Act was examined in the light of the pre-existing Hindu law. Section 4 gives overriding effect to the Act to the extent of inconsistency with prior Hindu law. Section 8 provides that the property of a male Hindu dying intestate devolves upon the heirs specified in Class I of the Schedule, and the heirs in that class take simultaneously to the exclusion of others. On that footing, when the father's property devolved upon the son, the son alone succeeded to it and the grandson was excluded. The reasoning accepted that the position under uncodified Hindu law, under which property inherited by a son could assume an ancestral character in the hands of the son, no longer applied in this situation because the statutory mode of devolution under section 8 displaced the earlier rule.

Conclusion: The inherited property was the son's separate and individual property, and the income therefrom was not assessable as the income of the Hindu undivided family.

---