Legal Heir Share Calculator (India)

About the Legal Heir Share Calculator (India)

When someone in India dies without a will, the law decides who inherits and in what shares — and which law depends on the religion of the person who died. Enter the family as it was at the death: the spouse, the parents, every son and daughter (and the family of any who died earlier), and brothers, sisters and further relatives when no closer heir survives. The calculator applies the Hindu Succession Act (Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs), the Indian Succession Act (Christians, Jews, people married under the Special Marriage Act and others) or its Parsi chapter, and shows each heir’s fraction, percentage and amount with the section behind it.

It handles Class I and Class II heirs, the branch of a son or daughter who died first, the special rules for a Hindu woman’s property, a widow’s one-third or one-half (and the ₹5,000 rule of s.33A), and the Parsi rule that each parent takes half a child’s share. Muslim succession, agnates and cognates, and ancestral (coparcenary) property are explained, not computed.

Common uses

• A family working out shares before a partition, a family settlement or a bank or insurance claim.
• An heir checking the share a relative or a builder proposes for an inherited flat or plot.
• An advocate or a law student checking the Class I and Class II shares or the Indian Succession Act rules for a family tree.

Which law applies

• Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs — and anyone else who is not a Muslim, Christian, Parsi or Jew, unless shown to be outside Hindu law — follow the Hindu Succession Act (s.2). It does not apply to members of a Scheduled Tribe unless the Central Government notifies it (s.2(2)).
• Christians, Jews and others follow the Indian Succession Act, Part V Chapter II (ss.31–49), which covers everyone except Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains (s.29) and Parsis (s.31).
• Parsis follow Chapter III of the same Part (ss.50–56 and Schedule II).
• A marriage under the Special Marriage Act: the spouses and their children follow the Indian Succession Act, without the Parsi chapter (s.21) — except where both spouses are Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs or Jains, who stay under the Hindu Succession Act (s.21A).
• Muslims follow Muslim personal law (Shariat Application Act s.2).

A Hindu man: Class I and Class II heirs

The Class I heirs inherit together and shut out everyone else (s.9): the widow, mother, sons and daughters, and — through a son or daughter who died before — that child’s widow and children, and some great-grandchildren. They share by s.10:

• Rule 1 — the widow takes one share; several widows share one share between them.
• Rule 2 — each surviving son and daughter, and the mother, takes one share.
• Rule 3 — the family (“branch”) of each son or daughter who died before takes one share between them.
• Rule 4 — a predeceased son’s share is split equally among his widow, his surviving sons and daughters and the branch of each of his own predeceased sons; a predeceased daughter’s among her surviving sons and daughters.

With no Class I heir, the first Class II entry with someone alive takes, all in that entry equally (ss.9, 11): I father; II son’s daughter’s son and daughter, brother, sister; III the daughter’s grandchildren; IV nephews and nieces; V paternal grandparents; VI father’s widow, brother’s widow; VII paternal uncles and aunts; VIII maternal grandparents; IX maternal uncles and aunts. After them come the agnates, then the cognates (ss.12, 13), and with no heir the Government (s.29). A brother or sister by uterine blood (same mother, another father) does not count as a brother or sister in the Schedule, and full blood is preferred to half blood (s.18).

A Hindu woman

Her property goes, in this order (s.15(1), s.16): (a) her sons and daughters — the children of one who died before taking that child’s share — and her husband, all equally; (b) the heirs of her husband; (c) her mother and father; (d) the heirs of her father; (e) the heirs of her mother.

Two exceptions apply when she leaves no son, daughter or child of a predeceased son or daughter (s.15(2)): what she inherited from her father or mother goes to her father’s heirs, and what she inherited from her husband or father-in-law goes to her husband’s heirs. “Heirs of the husband” or “of the father” are found as if he had died just after her (s.16 Rule 3) — work them out here by entering his family as a male deceased.

Christians and others: the Indian Succession Act

• The spouse takes one-third when there are lineal descendants, one-half when there are only other relatives (“kindred”), and everything when there are none (s.33). A widower has the same rights (s.35).
• The ₹5,000 rule — when the deceased was not an Indian Christian (nor the child or grandchild of an Indian Christian man) and left a widow but no lineal descendant, she takes the whole net estate up to ₹5,000, and from a larger estate ₹5,000 first, with interest at 4% a year until paid, before the rest is divided (s.33A).
• Lineal descendants share equally at the nearest degree with someone alive: children (s.37); with no child alive, the grandchildren per head (s.38); a descendant who died before is replaced by their own descendants, who share that parent’s portion (s.40).
• No lineal descendant — the father takes the kindred’s part (s.42); if he has died, the mother, brothers and sisters share equally, the children of a dead brother or sister taking their parent’s share (ss.43–46); with neither parent, the brothers and sisters (s.47); then the nearest degree of kindred, per head — grandparents before uncles, aunts, nephews and nieces (s.48). Half brothers and sisters share equally with full ones.

Parsis

• With children — the widow or widower and each child take equal shares, and each living parent half a child’s share (s.51). The share of a son who died before goes to his widow and children; a daughter’s to her children (s.53). A descendant who died before leaving no spouse, descendant or widowed spouse of a descendant is not counted (s.50(b)).
• No lineal descendant — the spouse takes one-half; or one-third, when the widow or widower of a lineal descendant also survives, who takes another third; the rest goes to the next-of-kin in Schedule II, Part I — parents, then brothers and sisters and their descendants, then grandparents, then uncles and aunts (s.54). With no spouse at all, Part II (s.55).
• A widow or widower of a relative who remarried in the deceased’s lifetime takes nothing (s.50(c)).

Muslims, ancestral property and other cases

• Muslims — the Quran fixes the shares of the “sharers” (a widow one-eighth with a child, one-fourth without; a husband one-fourth or one-half; a daughter with no son one-half; two or more such daughters two-thirds together) and the “residuaries” take the rest, a son twice a daughter. Sunni and Shia law differ, so the calculator explains and does not compute.
• Ancestral (Mitakshara coparcenary) property — a daughter is a coparcener by birth like a son (HSA s.6; Vineeta Sharma v Rakesh Sharma, (2020) 9 SCC 1). On a death the deceased’s interest is found by a notional partition just before the death (s.6(3)), and only that interest passes by the rules above.
• A child in the womb at the death who is born alive inherits as if born before (HSA s.20; ISA s.40 illustration (iv) and s.50(a)). An adopted child is the child of the adoptive parents for all purposes (Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act s.12).
• Disqualified heirs — a murderer cannot inherit from the victim (HSA s.25); a disqualified heir is treated as if they had died before the deceased (s.27). When two people die together and it is not known who died first, the younger is presumed to have survived the elder (HSA s.21).

Sources

• Hindu Succession Act, 1956 — ss.2, 3, 6, 8–16, 18–21, 25–29 and the Schedule
• Indian Succession Act, 1925 — Part V (ss.29–56) and Schedule II; Part X (succession certificates)
• Special Marriage Act, 1954 — ss.21, 21A
• Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937 — s.2
• Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 — s.12
• Vineeta Sharma v Rakesh Sharma, (2020) 9 SCC 1 — para 129 (daughters as coparceners)

Limitations

• An estimate, not legal advice. A will, a gift or family settlement, a registered partition, a local custom or a court’s finding about who survived changes the shares — have a lawyer confirm them.
• Agnates and cognates (Hindu), the husband’s or father’s heirs of a Hindu woman, and relatives beyond uncles and aunts are explained, not computed; enter the next family yourself as the text describes.
• Muslim succession, ancestral coparcenary shares and state amendments (such as Kerala’s rule for property a woman inherited from a son) are not computed.
• The family is entered down to great-grandchildren. Shares are of the net estate after debts, funeral and administration expenses; amounts are rounded to the rupee.

Privacy

Everything happens in your browser. What you enter or open here is not uploaded or stored by MySmartCoPilot.