News Excerpt:

Recently, the Madras High Court passed the ruling while allowing a 2019 appeal suit filed by a Christian widow and her daughter, challenging a district court’s order to give 50% of the properties left behind by the first appellant’s husband to his mother.

Key points of the ruling:

• The Madras High Court has ruled that if an individual to whom the Indian Succession Act of 1925 applies dies intestate (without signing a will), leaving behind his widow and children, his mother has no claim to the possessions left behind by him.
• Justices R. Subramanian and N. Senthil Kumar ruled while dealing with the case of a Christian family to whom the Indian Succession Act would apply.
• The appellants brought to the High Court's attention that the family in question is Christian and hence is regulated by the Indian Succession Act, which outlines the procedure for inheriting the property left behind by an intestate.
• In the current case, the intestate had left behind a widow and a daughter. As a result, the mother would be denied any portion. The judges agreed with the proposition based on a similar order issued by the High Court in 2021.