TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1991 (10) TMI 305
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....ised in the appeal is of considerable importance and it relates to the construction of Section 15 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 ('the Act'). One Smt. Mahan Kaur, wife of Jaimal Singh inherited from her husband certain agricultural land measuring 110 kanals 12 marlas situate in village Hamhal, Jakhe-Pal in Sangrur District. Some of the lands were under mortgage and are in possession of defendants 2 to 6. After coming into force of the Act, Mahan Kaur died intestate. On being informed that there was no heir entitled to succeed to her property, the Revenue Assistant Collector sanctioned mutation in favour of the State. Balwant Singh claiming to be a legal heir of Mahan Kaur brought the suit out of which the present appeal arise. Th....
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....to 6 appears to be correct and the decree against them made by the High Court is plainly untenable. There is indeed no controversy on that aspect of the matter. It is not in dispute that Mahan Kaur inherited the suit property from her husband. She had no issue and she died intestate. It is also not in dispute that there is no heir from her husband side entitled to succeed to the property. The plaintiff is grandson of the brother of Mahan Kaur. According to him he is entitled to get the property of the deceased. The case of the State is that the plaintiff is not her qualified heir under the Act and it is a case of failure of heirs resulting in the devolution of the estate on the Government. The issue raised in the case turns on the rul....
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...., in the absence of any son or daughter of the deceased (including the children of any pre-deceased son or daughter) not upon the other heirs referred to in sub-section (1) in the order specified therein, but upon the heirs of the husband." Sub-section (1) of Section 15 groups the heirs of a female intestate into five categories and they are specified under clauses (a) to (e). As per Sections 16 Rule 1 those in one clause shall be preferred to those in the succeeding clauses and those included in the same clause shall take simultaneously. Sub- section (2) of Section 15 begins with a non-obstante clause providing that the order of succession is not that prescribed under sub-section (1) of Section 15. It carves out two exceptions to the ge....
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....e, and such person had died intestate in respect thereof immediately after the intestate's death". This rule creates a fiction for the purpose of ascertaining the order of devolution. It has to be assumed that the husband had died intestate immediately after the female intestate's death. Bearing in mind this fiction, one has to go to the Schedule under Section 8 of the Act to find out the heirs of the husband who are entitled to succeed to the property of the intestate. The High Court has stated that the property inherited by Mahan Kaur from her husband became her absolute property in view of the provisions of Section 14 and the property would devolve upon the heirs specified under Section 15(1). It has also observed that the pla....
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....: "To whom land escheated - Escheat in the case of death intestate before 1926 was to the mesne lord is he could be found but, as since 1290 sub-infeudation has been forbidden, in the great majority of cases there was no record of the mesne tenure, and the escheat was to the Crown as the lord paramount of the whole soil of the country." Section 29, in our opinion, shall not operate in favour of the State if there is any other heir of the intestate. Indeed, Section 29 itself indicates that there must be failure of heirs. 'Failure' of heirs means the total absence of heirs to the intestate. It is important to remember that female Hindu being the full owner of the property becomes a fresh stock of descend. If s....
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.... order of succession among the heirs to a Hindu female and to prevent the properties from passing into the hands of persons to whom justice would demand that they should not pass. That means the property should go in the first instance to the heirs of the husband or to the source from where it came. In support of the contrary submission, attention was drawn to a passage from Hindu Law by S.V. Gupte in which it is stated "that the heirs of the husband will take where the property was inherited from the husband or from the father- in-law. The object is to eliminate the father and the moth- er, the heirs of the father, and the heirs of the mother altogether from succession where the property inherited was from the husband or the father-in-l....