Father earned property distribution in sunni muslim law
Aslam Attar
(Querist) 24 October 2015
This query is : Resolved
I have father whose age is around 80 years. He has earned property on his own at five locations. I have three brothers and two sister. I have grocery shop at the village from last 30 years in the father owned property. Now all of the brothers and father is planning for the partition. According to them, they are offering me only shop for may stake on the basis of valuation is at higher side. I am the oldest brother to them as I have spend so much money on them over the years. But they are not ready to take the note of that and distributing all the property among them without my consent.
I have my name in one property at other location. Can I have right to get property equally distributed among us. Please answer
1. Is that possible to distribute/partition property equally among all us as father earned property?
2. Shop comes under satta prakar b which is reward from Sansthan which can not be transferred in my name? What I do in this case?
3. Father is deliberately not doing partition equally. Can I stop him through court legal procedure?
4. Father is not ready to distribute property among sisters too. Can sister has rights to get the property?
Please reply..
Anirudh
(Expert) 24 October 2015
Dear Mr. Aslam,
You say it is your father's self earned property(ies).
If that be so, during the life time of your father, nobody (whether his wife, son(s) or daughter(s) etc.,) has any right to claim any share from his property.
The position will be completely different, in case your father leaves without making any WILL or GIFT or sale of the property. In that case the rule of inheritence will come into play. Under the Rule of inheritence, your mother will get 1/8th of share, and the remaining 7/8th share has to be shared between the son(s) and daughters. Sons will get twice the share of the daughters.
PLEASE TRY TO CLEARLY UNDERSTAND THE ABOVE LEGAL POSITION.
In view of the above, claiming any equal distribution, or asking for share for daughters etc., does not arise. Courts cases will not help.
Therefore, the best way is not to adopt any confrontational attitude, but to adopt a conciliatory approach and explain in a very cool and calm atmosphere why all his children have to be treated alike - so that daughters also given some share etc. etc.
SAINATH DEVALLA
(Expert) 24 October 2015
Even as per Sunni law U cannot force UR father to distribute his self earned property as long as he is alive.If he desires to distribute, the following sunni law applies:
As per to Sunni Sect the son always gets twice that of the daughter thus the ratio is 2:1. An Indian Muslim inheritance is considered as an integral part of Shariah Law Act 1937.
Under the customary Muslim law, a person cannot bequeath more than one-third of his property by will. But if he has married under Special Marriage Act, then he can will away entire property, and succession is governed by Indian Succession Act, and not the Muslim personal law i.e. Shariah Act 1937.
As long as the property is his own earned and not an ancestral one, and that he has already given 1/3rd to his daughters’ i.e. to your sisters and 2/3rd he wants to keep for his son i.e. for you . He has full right to do that by a Will which better to be registered and original to be saely-kept with the your local area sub-registrar’s office and you can have a copy of the same.
Please also note, he can amend/change/cancel his Will at any time during his life time, even without consulting you.
However, any legitimate payable debts by him or his old-age medical expenses and your mother’s old-age medical expenses etc he should clarify in the “will” that how and who will take care of the same, mostly it should be you as you are going to be the beneficiary in the will if he intends to do it. As while making the Will he has to declare all these issues.
The Will must not be witnessed by you or any of your sisters/their husbands who are the direct beneficiary of his property but by any third party. Your concerned experienced lawyer can guide you how to make a valid will, who to witness it and how to formalize it.
There is no full proof mechanism in law, you can always expect protests by near and dear ones while probating the will and same stands for the Gift deeds too.
K.S.Srinivas
(Expert) 25 October 2015
There are different principles of the distribution of inherited property between the sunni and shia sects.
It is better to consult consult an Islamic scholar/legal expert (who is well conversant with Islamic laws) to ensure that the will complies with Islamic law.
Rajendra K Goyal
(Expert) 27 October 2015
Consult local lawyer(practising in islamic law / mohamadon personal law) and discuss in detail.
T. Kalaiselvan, Advocate
(Expert) 31 October 2015
The author should understand that it will be too early for him claim partition in the father's self acquired property because his father is alive. If the father decides to gift away his self acquired property n favor of one person alone or in favor of any person of his choice, legally the author cannot raise any objection to it and it will not be maintainable. So it is always better to go for an amicable family settlement or family partition without stretching the issues on some greedy or egotism notes.
prabhakar singh
(Expert) 31 October 2015
I SQUARELY AGREE WITH ADVICE ADVANCED BY MR.ANIRUDH.
MUSLIM LAW OF INHERITANCE HAS NO CONCEPT OF JHF OR ANCESTRAL PROPERTY.
