Daughters granted equal coparcenary rights as sons under Hindu Succession Act amendment.

The court clarified that the amended Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 confers coparcenary status on daughters by birth, granting them equal rights as sons. The amendment is retroactive from 9.9.2005, applicable to daughters born before or after this date. Daughters have the same rights as sons in coparcenary property by birth, regardless of the father's status. Oral partitions and unregistered deeds may not be readily accepted under the amended Section 6, but exceptions exist. Daughters are entitled to equal shares in coparcenary property in pending partition suits, emphasizing equality and social justice.

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Issues: (i) Whether the amended Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 confers coparcenary rights on a daughter by birth, irrespective of whether the father coparcener was alive on the date of commencement of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005; (ii) whether the saving provision preserves only partitions and dispositions completed before 20.12.2004 and how partition is to be understood under Section 6(5); (iii) whether the statutory fiction of notional partition under the unamended proviso to Section 6 disrupts the coparcenary or prevents application of the amended provision in pending proceedings.

Issue (i): Whether the amended Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 confers coparcenary rights on a daughter by birth, irrespective of whether the father coparcener was alive on the date of commencement of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005.

Analysis: The substituted provision declares that on and from the commencement of the amendment, the daughter of a coparcener becomes a coparcener in her own right in the same manner as a son, with the same rights and liabilities. The right is traced to birth and not to succession on the death of a coparcener. The earlier view requiring a living daughter of a living coparcener was rejected as inconsistent with the statutory language and with the nature of coparcenary, which is capable of fluctuation by birth and death until actual partition.

Conclusion: The daughter becomes a coparcener by birth, and it is not necessary that the father coparcener be alive on 9.9.2005.

Issue (ii): Whether the saving provision preserves only partitions and dispositions completed before 20.12.2004 and how partition is to be understood under Section 6(5).

Analysis: The proviso and Section 6(5) preserve genuine prior transactions, including dispositions, alienations and partitions already completed before the cut-off date. The expression "partition" is given a restricted meaning and refers to a partition by a duly registered deed or by a decree of court. The Court treated the provision as aimed at preventing sham or frivolous pleas of oral partition and unregistered memoranda from defeating the daughter's statutory right.

Conclusion: Prior completed partitions and dispositions are saved, but oral partition by mere assertion is not ordinarily sufficient; the recognised mode is a registered partition deed or a court decree.

Issue (iii): Whether the statutory fiction of notional partition under the unamended proviso to Section 6 disrupts the coparcenary or prevents application of the amended provision in pending proceedings.

Analysis: The deemed partition under the unamended proviso was confined to ascertaining the share of the deceased coparcener and did not bring about actual disruption of the coparcenary. Since a partition suit remains pending until final decree, intervening changes in law must be given effect. The amended rights of daughters therefore apply in pending final decree proceedings and appeals, notwithstanding an earlier preliminary decree.

Conclusion: The statutory fiction did not end the coparcenary, and pending matters must reflect the enlarged rights conferred by the amended Section 6.

Final Conclusion: The substituted Section 6 is declared to confer equal coparcenary status on daughters by birth, with protection for genuinely completed past transactions and with the amended law applicable to pending partition proceedings until final decree.

Ratio Decidendi: A daughter's coparcenary right under amended Section 6 arises by birth and operates from the commencement of the amendment, subject only to saving of completed prior transactions and without requiring the father coparcener to be alive on the commencement date; the notional partition under the unamended proviso is only for ascertaining the deceased's share and does not terminate the coparcenary.

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