Inheritance share calculator: who gets what share of the land without a will

How is land divided when a Hindu man dies without a will?

His own property goes first to his Class I heirs, and they take at the same time, in equal shares (Sections 8 and 10 of the Hindu Succession Act). His widow takes one share, each son and each daughter takes one share, and his mother takes one share. If he left more than one widow, they split a single share between them.

Example: he leaves a widow, two sons, one daughter and his mother. That is five equal shares, so each of them gets 1/5. On 10 acres, that is 2 acres each — the daughter’s share is exactly the same as each son’s, whether or not she is married.

His father, brothers and sisters are not Class I heirs. They inherit only if there is no Class I heir at all, and then the father comes first.

What happens to the share of a child who died before the parent?

A child who died earlier still counts as one share, and that share passes down their branch. For a late son, his widow and each of his children take equal portions of his share. For a late daughter, her children share it — her husband is not a Class I heir of her father.

Example: a man leaves a widow and one living son, and a son who died earlier leaving a wife and two children. There are three shares of 1/3: the widow, the living son, and the late son’s branch. The branch’s 1/3 is split three ways, so the late son’s wife and each child get 1/9.

If a late child left no spouse or children, their branch simply drops out and the others’ shares grow.

Do daughters get an equal share in ancestral property?

Yes. Since the 2005 amendment, a daughter is a coparcener by birth in joint-family (Mitakshara) property, with the same rights as a son. In Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma (2020), the Supreme Court held that this right does not depend on the father being alive on 9 September 2005 — though partitions completed before 20 December 2004 are left undisturbed.

For joint property, the law first imagines a partition just before the death (Section 6(3)). Take a man who dies after 2005 leaving a widow, two sons, a daughter and his mother, with joint property held with his three children. It splits four ways — him and each child — so each child already owns 1/4. Only his 1/4 is inherited, one-fifth each to the widow, three children and mother. Each child ends with 3/10, and the widow and mother with 1/20 each.

Courts have in some cases also given the widow a share in that imagined partition, as in Gurupad Khandappa Magdum (1978), which increases her portion. The calculator lets you switch this on, but it depends on local Hindu law — ask a lawyer before relying on it.

Who inherits a Hindu woman’s property if she dies without a will?

Her husband, sons and daughters come first and share equally, with a late child’s children taking that child’s share (Sections 15 and 16). A late son’s widow does not inherit from her mother-in-law.

If none of them is alive, where the property came from matters. Property she inherited from her parents goes back to her father’s heirs; property from her husband or father-in-law goes to her husband’s heirs. Her other property goes to her husband’s heirs, then her parents. In Arunachala Gounder v. Ponnusamy (2022), the Supreme Court confirmed this ‘back to the source’ rule, and held that a daughter inherits her father’s self-acquired property in preference to his brothers’ sons.

Does this apply to farmland, to Goa, and to other religions?

Farmland: until 2005, Section 4(2) let state tenancy laws decide who inherited agricultural land, which often left daughters out. The 2005 amendment removed it, so the Act now applies to farmland too. State land-ceiling or tenancy rules can still affect a holding, so check how your state records the shares.

Uttar Pradesh is a notable exception: succession to bhumidhari farmland is recorded under Section 108 of the UP Revenue Code, 2006, which sets its own order of heirs (widow, sons and unmarried daughters first; married daughters later in the list). For UP farmland, use the shares the tehsil records under the Code, and see the varasat guide.

Goa: families domiciled in Goa follow the Goa (Portuguese) Civil Code instead, and the Supreme Court has held that it governs their property elsewhere in India too. Muslims follow Muslim personal law, and most Christians and Parsis follow the Indian Succession Act, 1925. This calculator does not work out those shares.