The Chhattisgarh high court has ruled that a daughter cannot claim a share in her deceased father’s property if he passed away before the enforcement of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956. The court said that in such cases, succession is governed by the Mitakshara Law, which was in effect before the 1956 legislation and recognised only sons as legal heirs to a father’s property. The ruling came in a second appeal filed by the legal heirs of one Ragmania, who had sought a share in the estate of her father, Sudhin, a resident of Surguja district. The high court noted that Sudhin had died around 1950–51, several years before the 1956 law was enacted. Since his death had opened the line of succession at that time, the property would devolve according to the pre-Hindu Succession Act rules.

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