Mother cannot enjoy intestate deceased son's property: MHC

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court (MHC) refused to share the property of the deceased son with his mother, citing the Indian Succession Act, and set aside the lower court's order as it overlooked the act.

According to the Indian Succession Act, a mother of an intestate does not become the heir unless there is a failure on other heirs, namely, the widow, the lineal descendant, kindred, or father, wrote a division bench of MHC comprising Justice R Subramanian and Justice N Senthil Kumar while setting aside the trial court's order.

An appellant Agnes and her minor daughter moved the MHC challenging the Nagapattinam district court's judgment, which allowed the mother-in-law of the appellant to enjoy a share of her deceased husband's property.

The deceased husband of the appellant Moses, who died intestate in 2012.

Subsequently, his mother Pauline moved to the Nagapattinam district court seeking one-third of his property.

The district court concluded that Pauline, being the mother of Moses and Agnes, being a widow, would be entitled to equal share in the properties.

Further, the lower court also held the daughter of Agnes is not a legitimate child as she was conceived even before a valid marriage between the deceased.

Aggrieved by this order, Agnes moved the MHC.

The counsel for Agnes contended that in the view of Sections 33 and 33-A of the Indian Succession Act, the mother of an intestate will not be entitled to any share in the property when he leaves behind a widow or a lineal descendant.

B S Mitra Neshaa, who was appointed as amicus curiae has submitted that according to the act, if an intestate dies leaving behind a widow and lineal descendants, one-third of the property would go to the widow, and the remaining two-thirds will go to the lineal descendants.

After the submission, the bench dismissed the suit filed by the deceased's mother and allowed the appeal.