
 State of Maharashtra - Act
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 Hindu Succession (Maharashtra Amendment) Act, 1994
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 MAHARASHTRA
   
 India
 
 Hindu Succession (Maharashtra Amendment) Act, 1994
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 Act 40 of 1994
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* Published on 25 November 1994
* Not commenced

 (This Act received the assent of the President on the 25th November 1994; assent was published in the Maharashtra Government Gazette, Part IV, on the 6th December 1994.)
 
 An Act further to amend the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, in its application to the State of Maharashtra.
 
 WHEREAS the Constitution of India has proclaimed equality before law as a Fundamental Right;
 
 AND WHEREAS the exclusion of the daughter from coparcenary ownership merely by reason of her sex is contrary to the Constitutional mandate; .
 
 AND WHEREAS such exclusion of the daughter has led to the creation of /the socially pernicious dowry system with its attendant social evils;
 
 AND WHEREAS this baneful system of dowry has to be eradicated by positive measures which will simultaneously ameliorate the conditions of women in the Hindu Society;
 
 AND WHEREAS the Government of Maharashtia has recently announced a policy with a view to promote the welfare of the women;
 
 AND WHEREAS the said policy for women, inter alia , provides for the conferment of coparcenary right on the daughter of a coparcener in a Joint Hindu Family governed by Mitakshara Law;
 
### 30. of AND WHEREAS it is considered necessary further to amend the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, in its application to the State of Maharashtra, for the purposes aforesaid; It is hereby enacted in the Forty-fifth Yeai of the Republic of India as follows
### 1. Short title and Commencement.
 This Act may b; called the Hindu Succession (Maharashtra Amendment) cohorttide Act, 1994.
 
(2) It shall b: deemed to have come into force oil the 22nd day of June J994.
 
### 2. Insertion of Chapter II-A in Act 30 of 1956.
 After section 29 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, in its application to the State of Maharashtra (hereinafter referred to as “ the principal Act ”), the following Chapter shall be inserted, namely-
 
**CHAPTER II A Succession by Survivorship** 
### 29. -A. Equal rights to daughter in coparcenary property.
 
 Notwithstanding anything contained in section 6 of this Act, —
 
(i) in a Joint Hindu Family governed by the Mitakshara Law, the daughter of a coparcener shall by birth become a coparcener in her own right in the same manner as a son and have the same rights in the coparcenary property as she would have had if she had been a son, inclusive of the right to claim by survivorship ; and shall be subject to the same liabiliiies and disabilities in respect thhereto as the son;
 
(ii) at a partition in a Joint Hindu Family referred to in clause (/), the coparcenary property shall be so divided as to allot to a daughter the same share as is allotable to a son:
 
 Provided that the share which a pre-deceased son or a pre-deceased daughter would have got at the partition if he or she had been alive at the time of partition shall be allotted to the surviving child of such p/e-dec eased son or of such pre-deceased daughter :
 
 Provided further that the share allotable to the pre-deccased child of a pre-dcccased son or of a pre-deceased daughter, if such child had been alive at the time of the partition, shall be allotted to the child of such pre-deceased child of the pre-deceased son or of the pre-dec :ased daughter, as the case may be;
 
(iii) any property to which a female Hindu becomes entitled by virtue of the provisions of clause (i) shall be held by her with the incidents of coparcenary ownership and shall be regarded, notwithstanding anything contained in this Act or any other law for the time being in force, as property capable of being disposed of by her by will or other testamentary disposition ;
 
(iv) nothing in this Chapter shall apply to a daughter married before, the date of the commencement of the Hindu Succession (Maharashtra Amendment) Act, 1994;
 
(v) nothing in clause (ii) shall apply to a partition which has been effected before tho date of the commencement of the Hindu Succession (Maharashtra Amendment) Act, 1994.
 
### 29. -B. Invest to devolve by survivorship on death.
 
 When a female Hindu dies aftei the date of the commencement of the Hindu Succession (Maharashtra Amendment) Act, 1994, having, at the time of her death, an intciest in a Mhakshara coparcenary property by viitue of the pro-visions of section 29-A, her interest in tho ptoperty shall devolve by survivorship upon tho surviving members of the coparcenary and not in accordance with this Act :
 
 Provided that, if the deceased had left any child or child of a pre-docoased child, the interest of tho deceased in the Mitakshara coparcenary property shall devolve by teslaaientaiy or intestate succession, as the case may be, under this Act and not by survivorship.
 
 Explanation I — For the purposes of this section, the interest of a female ’Hindu Mitakshaia coparcener shall be deemed to be the share in the property that would have bean allotted to her if a partition of thr property had taken place immediately before her death, irrespective; of whether she was entitled to claim partition or not.
 
 Explanation II — Nothing contained in the proviso to this section shall be construed as enabling a person who, before the death of the deceased, had separated himself or herself from the coparcenary or any of his or her heirs to claim on intestacy a share in the interest referred to therein.
 
### 29. -C. Preferential right to acquire property in certain cases.
 
 (1) Where, after tho date of the commencement of the Hindu Succession (Maharashtra Amendment) Act/ 1994, an interest in any immovable property, of an intestate or in any business carried on b y him or hei, whether solely or in, conjunction with others, devolves under section 29-A or section 29-B upon two or more heirs, and any one of such heirs proposes to transier his or her interest in the , property or business, the other heirs shall have a preferential right to acquire the interest proposed to be transferred.
 
 (2) The consideration for which any interest in the property of the deceased, may be transferred under this section shall, in the absence cf any agreement between the parties, be determined by the Court on an application being made to it in this behalf, and if any person proposing to acquire the interest is not willing to acquire it for the consideration so determined, such person shall be liable to pay all costs
 
 of, or incidental to, the application.
 
(3) tf there are two or more heirs proposing to acquire any interest under this section, then the heir who offers the highest consideration for the transfer shall be preferred.
 
 Explanation . — In this section " Court ” means the court within the limits of whose jurisdiction the immovable property is situate or the business is Carried on, and includes any other court which the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette , specify in this behalf. ”,
 
### 3. Certain partitions to be null and void. Notwithstanding anything contained in the principal Act or in any other law Certain for the time being in force, where, on or after the 22nd June 1994 and before the Partitions date of the publication of this Act in the Official Gazette , any partition in respect of coparcenary property of a joint Hindu family has been effected and such partition is not in accordance with the provisions ot the principal Act, as amended by this.
 
 Act, such partition shall be deemed, to be, and tc have always been, null and void.
 

