My parents' marriage was not valid under Hindu law. Can I inherit property from my late father?
If you were born out of a void marriage or a voidable marriage that was annulled, you would have a share in the inheritance of your late father's properties as per Hindu law.
The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (HMA) confers legitimacy upon children born out of such void or voidable marriages. A void marriage has no legal status from the outset (e.g., if a party has a spouse at the time of the marriage); whereas a voidable marriage is considered valid until it is annulled by court decree (e.g., if a party was incapable of giving valid consent to marriage owing to unsoundness of mind).
Accordingly, under the HMA, you would be treated as the 'legitimate' child of your parents as if the marriage had been valid, and would have rights in your late father's properties in the same manner as any other child born to your father from his subsequent valid marriage. However, this does not confer on you rights in relation to the property of other relatives such as your grandparents (unless they specifically name you as a legatee in their will).
With respect to ancestral/HUF property, you will not be considered as a coparcener even though your father may have been the karta or coparcener. Your rights (shared with other legal heirs) are limited to your father's share in such joint family/HUF property, which would be ascertained as if a notional partition of such property had taken place immediately before his death. This is assuming that your father belonged to a joint Hindu family governed by Mitakshara law.
This position on the inheritance rights of a child born from a void or voidable Hindu marriage who is deemed to be 'legitimate' under the HMA differs from that of 'illegitimate children' under the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 (HSA). Under the HSA, 'illegitimate children' are deemed to be related to their mother and to one another and therefore can inherit only from the mother and not the father. This does not apply in your case, given your status as a child born from a marriage that is void or voidable.
Please consult a lawyer to understand the application of these general legal principles to the facts and circumstances of your case.
Shaishavi Kadakia is a partner and Sachi Shah is a Senior Associate at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Mumbai.
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