Indian Succession Act | How Does Wife's Property Devolve After Death? Supreme Court Explains Christian Inheritance

The Supreme Court on Thursday (July 30) clarified that under Christian succession law, a property purchased by a husband in the name of his wife remains the wife's exclusive property. Consequently, upon her death, succession to such property must be determined based on her ownership and cannot be treated as the husband's estate for the purpose of applying Section 33 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925.

A Bench of Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh heard an appeal filed against a Chhattisgarh High Court judgment which treated property standing in the name of a deceased wife as part of her husband's estate and applied Section 33 of the Indian Succession Act.

Section 33 of the ISA provides that where a male intestate leaves a widow and lineal descendants, one-third of his property goes to the widow and two-thirds to lineal descendants.

The Court held that the High Court had misapplied the provision, as Section 33 governs succession to the estate of a male intestate and could not be invoked to determine succession to property owned by the wife.

“…the application of Section 33 appears misplaced for the reason that, by its application, what the High Court implies is that the property that was legally bought in the name of the 2 wives of MA is, in fact, in the eyes of the law, his property, whereas that is not the case. Since the property is in the name of the 2 wives of MA, it is their property.”, the Court observed.

Briefly put, One-Mattus Anthony (MA), husband, purchased land in 1959 for Rs. 300 in the names of both his wives i.e., Filomina (first wife) and Shyam Bai (second wife). Filomina had three children (the plaintiffs), while Shyam Bai had one son, John Anthony. Filomina died in 1985, MA died in 1991, and Shyam Bai died in 2000. John Anthony predeceased his mother Shyam Bai in 1985.

In 2002, the defendants (children of John Anthony) sold their share of the property to Defendant No. 6, prompting the plaintiffs to file a suit. The Trial Court decreed the suit in favour of the plaintiffs, the First Appellate Court reversed it, and the High Court held both widows together entitled to 1/3rd, with plaintiffs entitled to 2/3rd as "lineal descendants."

The judgment authored by Justice Karol said that the Courts below have erred in applying the law of succession. The Court said that since the properties belonged to the wives, therefore, the succession would be determined under Section 35 of ISA, which says that when a wife dies intestate (without a will) her husband (MA) inherits the same share that she would inherit if her husband died intestate under Section 33.

“…since Filomena predeceased MA, by virtue of the application of Section 35 of the ISA, MA would possess the same rights on Filomena's property as she would have in the scenario that MA would have predeceased her.”, the Court said.

As per Section 33(a) of the ISA, where a male dies intestate leaving a widow, and if he has also left any lineal descendants/children, then one-third of his property shall belong to his widow, and the remaining two-thirds shall go to his lineal descendants/children.

Applying the law, the Court said that since the first wife, Filomena, died intestate, one-third of her share in the property would be inherited by her husband (MA), and the remaining two-thirds would be inherited by her children.

“The effect thereof would be that with respect to the part of the property in the name of Filomena, one third would rest with MA and the remaining two thirds would go to her successors in interest, that is the Plaintiffs. There would be no application of Section 33 on the entirety of the property since never did the whole property rest in the name of MA.”, the Court said.

How would devolution of first wife's one-third share received by husband take effect?

The question that then arose was regarding the devolution of the one-third share inherited by MA upon the death of his first wife, Filomina. Specifically, the issue was whether Section 33 of the Indian Succession Act would apply so as to confer a share upon Shyam Bai, the second wife, in the portion inherited by MA from Filomina, or whether that share, upon MA's death, would devolve solely upon his children, including those born from the second wife Shyam Bai.

The Court clarified that the first wife's one-third share inherited by MA would be divided among four children of MA, i.e., three from the first wife and one from the second wife. The second wife would not have any right over the first wife's property, nor could she claim a share invoking Section 33 of ISA, as the property wasn't owned by MA.

“The one third of Filomena's property received by MA upon her death, would then devolve upon the children of MA through Filomena and Shyam Bai i.e., the Plaintiffs and John Anthony. In other words, the one-third share would be divided amongst the four children of MA and Shyam Bai.”, the Cout said.

How would the second wife's property devolve upon her death?

Also, the question arose about how the property of the second wife would devolve who dies intestate. The Court held that her property would devolve as per Section 38 of ISA, which governs property distribution when a person dies without a will (intestate) leaving no surviving children, but with surviving grandchildren.

Since her son predeceased her in 1985, her property would devolve upon her four grandchildren in equal shares.

In terms of the aforesaid, the court corrected the error committed by the Courts below in deciding the succession under the Christian law of succession.

Cause Title: SHAKUNTALA & ORS. VERSUS ROBERT ANTHONY & ORS.

Citation : 2026 LiveLaw (SC) 741

Click here to download judgment

Appearance:

For Petitioner(s) : Mr. Satish Pandey, AOR

For Respondent(s) : Mr. Gagan Gupta, Sr. Adv. Mr. Vikrant Singh Bais, AOR Mr. Yogesh Tiwari, Adv. Ms. Neema Singh, Adv. Ms. Priya Hingorani, Sr. Adv. Mr. Nikhil Jain, AOR Ms. Aditi Ladda, Adv. Ms. Divya Jain, Adv. Ms. Arveen Sekhon, Adv. Ms. Ankita Sharma, AOR Mr. Arjun D Singh, Adv. Ms. Ishika Neogi, Adv. Mr. Divya Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Gaurav Agrawal, Sr. Adv.(A.C.) Ms. Akriti Chaubey, AOR Ms. Shrija Rawat, Adv. Mr. Darshan Sejwal, Adv.