Man doesn't have right on asset inherited by married sister: SC

A man cannot claim right over the property inherited by his sister from her husband as the brother can neither be considered to be her heir, nor her family, the Supreme Court has said.

The apex court referred to the provision of the Hindu Succession Act which lays down the general order of succession to the property of a female intestate who dies

after the commencement of the law.

"Language used in the section (15) clearly specifies that the property inherited from the husband and father-in-law would devolve upon the heirs of husband/father-in-

law from whom she inherited the property," a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and R Banumathi said. The important view was expressed by the apex court while

dismissing an appeal filed by a man challenging the March 2015 order of the Uttarakhand High Court holding him to be an unauthorised occupant in a property in

Dehradun in which his married sister, who has died, was a tenant.

The bench noted that the property was taken on rent in 1940 by the father-in-law of the man's sister and thereafter the woman's husband became its tenant. After the

death of her husband, she became the tenant of the property.