Daughters have equal birthright to inherit property: Supreme Court

News: The Supreme Court held that daughters, like sons, have an equal birthright to inherit joint Hindu family property. 

Facts: 

• The Court ruled that a Hindu woman’s right to be a joint heir to the ancestral property is by birth and does not depend on whether her father was alive or not when the law was enacted in 2005. 
•  The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 gave Hindu women the right to be coparceners or joint legal heirs in the same way a male heir does. 

Additional facts: 

Hindu Succession Act, 1956 

• The Mitakshara school of Hindu law codified as the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 governed succession and inheritance of property but only recognised males as legal heirs. 
• In 2005, the law was amended and women were recognised as coparceners or joint legal heirs for partition