Brother can’t claim sister’s property: SC

LEGAL PROVISIONS OF THE HINDU SUCCESSION ACT WERE QUOTED TO POINT OUT THE SUCCESSION LINE

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has held that a man cannot claim right over property inherited by his sister from her husband because he is neither her heir nor her family.

Legal provisions of the Hindu Succession Act were quoted to point out the succession line. A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said the law was clear that property inherited by a woman from her husband or father-inlaw would devolve upon the heirs of the husband and fatherin-law only.

The bench dismissed an appeal filed by a man challenging a March 2015 order of the Uttarakhand high court holding him to be an unauthorised occupant of a property in Dehradun in which his married sister, who later died, was a tenant.

The property was taken on rent in 1940 by the father-in-law of the man’s sister. Thereafter the woman’s husband became the tenant and after his death she became the tenant.

The petitioner had asserted his right as a tenant saying he was part of his sister’s family.

“In the facts of present case, the appellant being the brother of deceased tenant cannot be held to be the family as the inclusive list given under the Act clearly omits brother and sister and the same cannot be read therein as the list has to be read and interpreted strictly,” it said.