Chennai: Does a mother's second marriage lose her daughter's legal rights over her late father's property? Madras High Court, while giving an important decision on this question, has made it clear that the mother's remarriage does not affect the daughter's inheritance rights. The daughter remains entitled to the rights she gets under law in her father's property.
Mother remarries after husband's death
The case pertained to a family in which, after the death of a man, his wife and daughter were left behind. After the death of her father, the wife remarried and did not ask for her share in the property of her late husband. After this the daughter claimed inheritance on her father's share of the property. She was the sole legal heir of the deceased.
In the case, it was argued on behalf of the other co-sharers that after the remarriage of the mother, the share of the deceased should be returned to the other co-sharers. It was also argued that the daughter should also not get a share in that property. On the contrary, it was said on behalf of the daughter that the mother's remarriage cannot affect her own legal inheritance.
What did the High Court say?
Justice PB Balaji, in an order given on August 25, rejected the plea of depriving the daughter of property on the grounds of remarriage. The Court clarified that the legal disqualification associated with remarriage, where applicable, is related to the status of the widow who has remarried. This does not mean that his child's legal inheritance rights will also be lost.
The Court also clarified that in this case the mother herself had not laid claim to the property, while the daughter was the sole heir of the deceased. Therefore, the daughter cannot be deprived of her father's property on the basis of mother's remarriage.
Daughter's rights independent of mother's marital status
The simple meaning of the decision is that change in the marital status of the mother does not automatically end the daughter's succession to her father's property. The court has considered the right of inheritance as separate from the remarriage of the mother. However, the rights to a particular property will be determined depending on its nature, the applicable succession law and the actual legal position of the family.
This decision is important in cases where a dispute arises regarding the property rights of the children from the first marriage after the remarriage of the widowed mother. The Madras High Court made it clear that a daughter cannot be excluded from inheriting her late father's property merely because the mother remarries.