Law Maker

CHAPTER II INTESTATE SUCCESSION · General

Section 16: Order of succession and manner of distribution among heirs of a female Hindu

The Hindu Succession Act, 1956

The order of succession among the heirs referred to in section 15 shall be, and the distribution of the intestate’s property among those heirs shall take place according to the following rules, namely:―

Rule 1.―Among the heirs specified in sub-section (1) of section 15, those in one entry shall be preferred to those in any succeeding entry, and those included in the same entry shall take simultaneously.

Rule 2.―If any son or daughter of the intestate had pre-deceased the intestate leaving his or her own children alive at the time of the intestate’s death, the children of such son or daughter shall take between them the share which such son or daughter would have taken if living at the intestate’s death.

Rule 3.―The devolution of the property of the intestate on the heirs referred to in clauses (b), (d) and (e) of sub-section (1) and in sub-section (2) of section 15 shall be in the same order and according to the same rules as would have applied if the property had been the father’s or the mother’s or the husband’s as the case may be, and such person had died intestate in respect thereof immediately after the intestate’s death.

Questions on this section

1 question in 3 of our papers cite Section 16. Try these from the free papers:

  1. 1. W, a Hindu widow with no children, dies intestate in 2021 leaving a flat she had bought with her own earnings. Her only surviving relatives are her own mother M and H, the mother of her late husband. No other relative of W or of her husband survives. Under Sections 15 and 16 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, the flat goes to:

Practise questions on Hindu Law