Hindu Succession Act, 1956–Sec. 6 (As substituted by Amendment Act, 2005)–Rights of daughters after the amendment–Conflict judgments–Reference–Answered–Held,
(1) The provisions contained in substituted Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 confer the status of coparcener on the daughter born before or after amendment in the same manner as a son with the same rights and liabilities.
(2) The rights can be claimed by the daughter born earlier with effect from 09.09.2005 with savings as provided in Sec. 6(1) as to the deposition or alienation, partition or testamentary deposition which had taken place before 20th day of December 2004.
(3) Since the right in coparcenary is by birth, it is not necessary that the father coparcener should be living as on 09.09.2005. (4) The statutory fiction of partition created by proviso to Sec. 6 of the Act as originally enacted did not bring about the actual partition or disruption of coparcenary–The Fiction was only for the purpose of ascertaining share of deceased coparcener when he was survived by a female hair, of Class-I as specified in the Schedule to the Act of 1956 or male relative of such female–The provisions of the substituted Sec. 6 are required to be given full effect–Notwithstanding that a preliminary decree has been passed, the daughters are to be given a share in coparcenary equal to that of a son in pending proceedings for final decree or in an appeal.
(5) In view of the rigor of provisions of Explanation to Sec. 6(5) of the Act, a plea of oral partition cannot be accepted as the statutory recognized mode of partition effected by a deed of partition duly registered under the provisions of the Registration Act, 1908 or effected by a decree of a Court–However, in exceptional cases where the plea of oral partition is supported by public documents and partition is finally evinced in the same manner as if it had been affected by a decree of a Court, it may be accepted–A plea of partition based on oral evidence alone cannot be accepted and to be rejected outrightly.
