land property distribution

Dear Client,
The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, states that both parties should not have a living spouse at the time of the second marriage. The act specifies that at the time of the second marriage, none of the parties should be legally married, and both parties must end their previous marriage to remarry. Accordingly, if the second marriage is valid, i.e., the husband gets married after the demise of the first wife or after divorcing the first wife, then the second wife has the same rights as the first wife over the husband’s property. This is valid for both the husband’s self-acquired as well as ancestral property. Therefore, the property rights of the second wife are dependent on the legal status of her marriage. An individual gets the right to ancestral property by birth. Typically, ancestral property refers to property that has been inherited for four or more generations and has not been divided or sold off. After the amendment of the Hindu Succession Act in 2005, daughters regardless of their marital status given the right to claim their share both in ancestral property and self-acquired property(if left intestate) of their parents. Until and unless an undivided ancestral property or self-acquired property(if left intestate) is partitioned through a decree of partition passed by a Civil Court, a coparcener or legal heir cannot get his/her share in the said property and cannot transfer his/her share in the property without the consent of other legal heirs/coparceners. So, if the second marriage of your grandfather's father is a valid marriage, on the demise of the owner of the intestate property, i.e, without any will, all the five children of the second wife and the son of the first wife are equally entitled to an equal share in the said property.

Dear Client,
The case involves the law of Hindu succession act 1956 on the distribution of the land to the heirs of a grandfather’s father who had two wives. If the first wife died before the second marriage then both the son of the first wife, as well as five children of the second wife, are officially considered legitimate heirs. All children are equally entitled to self-acquired and ancestral property of the father. However, if the second marriage was done during the lifetime of the first wife without the first wife getting a divorce then the second marriage can be characterized as bigamous under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and only the first wife and her children would inherit the property. Civil courts are available for heirs to present their grievances where he/she can seek justice as advised by an experienced family law lawyer.

Hope this advice helps in solving your query.