Indian Succession & Inheritance Laws — Comprehensive Reference Report

Purpose: Master reference document for building a "Who Gets What" / estate-succession application. Covers intestate (no will) and testate (with will) succession across all major personal laws in India, nomination vs. inheritance, and decision-tree logic for app scenarios.

Disclaimer: This is a general legal-information summary, not legal advice. Succession law is fact-specific and subject to judicial interpretation and state amendments (especially agricultural land, which is a State subject). For any real transaction, consult a lawyer. Figures like "₹5,000" are the literal statutory figures still on the books — they are historically outdated but not yet amended by Parliament.

1. The Big Picture: Which Law Applies to Whom?

India does not have one Uniform Succession Law. The applicable law depends on the religion of the deceased (and sometimes the type of property and domicile):

Key legal principle: Succession is a State List/Concurrent List subject (Entry 5, List III, Seventh Schedule of the Constitution) — both Parliament and State legislatures can legislate on it, which is why some states (e.g., Kerala for Christians until 1986, erstwhile Travancore-Cochin) had local variants.

2. HINDU SUCCESSION ACT, 1956 (as amended by Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005)

Applies to: any Hindu (incl. Virashaiva, Lingayat, Brahmo, Prarthana, Arya Samaj followers), Buddhist, Jain, Sikh. Does not apply to Scheduled Tribes unless the government specifically notifies it.

2.1 Two kinds of Hindu property

1. Separate/self-acquired property — always devolves by the HSA succession rules (Sections 8–13) on death.
2. Coparcenary (ancestral, Mitakshara joint-family) property — historically devolved by "survivorship" to surviving male coparceners; post-2005, daughters are coparceners by birth too.

2.2 The 2005 Amendment — what changed

• The daughter of a coparcener became, by birth, a coparcener in her own right in the same manner as a son, with the same rights in coparcenary property.
• She now has the right to seek partition of joint family property, which she did not have before.
• Section 23 (which barred daughters from demanding partition of a dwelling house occupied by the joint family) was omitted.
• Section 6(4) abolished the doctrine of "pious obligation" (sons no longer liable for father's debts purely on religious grounds for post-2005 debts).
• Retrospective vs. prospective fight, now settled: In Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma (2020) 9 SCC 1, the Supreme Court held the 2005 amendment applies to all living daughters as of 9 September 2005, regardless of their date of birth or whether the father was alive on that date — overruling the earlier stricter "living coparcener" test from Prakash v. Phulavati. The 2018 Danamma v. Amar case had already held daughters born before or after 1956 can assert coparcenary rights.
• Exception that still bars daughters: a registered partition deed or a court decree finalized before 20 December 2004 is protected and cannot be reopened. An oral or unregistered "family settlement" from before 2005 does not defeat a daughter's claim.

2.3 Intestate succession — Male Hindu dies without a will (Sections 8–13)

Order of preference (each class exhausts before moving to next):

Class I heirs (take simultaneously & equally, per stirpes for pre-deceased children's branches): Son, daughter, widow, mother, and grandchildren (sons/daughters of a pre-deceased son or daughter) are Class I heirs. If more than one person exists in a category (e.g. two sons), each gets one share; if there are multiple widows, they collectively take one widow's share and split it.

Class II heirs (inherit only if no Class I heir exists) — in this strict order, each entry exhausted before the next is touched:

1. Father
2. (i) Son's daughter's son, (ii) son's daughter's daughter, (iii) brother, (iv) sister
3. (i) Daughter's son's son, (ii) daughter's son's daughter, (iii) daughter's daughter's son, (iv) daughter's daughter's daughter
4. Brother's son, sister's son, brother's daughter, sister's daughter
5. Father's father, father's mother
6. Father's widow, brother's widow
7. Father's brother, father's sister
8. Mother's father, mother's mother
9. Mother's brother, mother's sister

Agnates — if no Class I or II heir, property goes to agnates (relatives connected wholly through males).

Cognates — if no agnates, property goes to cognates (relatives not wholly through males).

Government (escheat) — if no heir at all, property escheats to the State.

Disqualifications: A murderer is disqualified from inheriting from the victim. A relative who converts out of Hinduism remains eligible to inherit, but that convert's own descendants are disqualified from inheriting from their Hindu relatives unless they reconvert to Hinduism before the relative's death. A remarried widow of a pre-deceased son/grandson/brother is excluded.

2.4 Female Hindu dies intestate (Section 15–16)

Order (materially different from the male scheme):

1. Sons, daughters (incl. children of predeceased children) and husband — all together, equally.
2. Heirs of the husband (if none in #1).
3. Mother and father.
4. Heirs of the father.
5. Heirs of the mother.

Special carve-out: Property she inherited from her parents goes back to her father's heirs (not husband's side) if she has no children, and property inherited from her husband/father-in-law goes to husband's heirs if she has no children — to keep property "in the family of origin" for inherited (not self-acquired) property.

2.5 Notional/deemed partition example (how coparcenary interest is calculated)

Illustrative pattern used in Indian legal practice (matches Allahabad HC explanation of Section 6):

Father F dies leaving sons S1, S2 and daughter D as surviving coparceners, plus widow W and widowed mother M. A "notional partition" is deemed to happen immediately before death: F's share works out to 1/4 of the coparcenary (F, S1, S2, D each notionally get 1/4). That 1/4 share of F is then further split equally among his Class I heirs — S1, S2, D, W and M — as intestate succession, in addition to whatever they already held from the notional partition. This two-step "notional partition + Class I distribution" is the standard app logic for coparcenary calculations.

2.6 Wills under Hindu law

• Section 30, HSA: a Hindu may dispose of his/her own share (self-acquired property, and — post-2005 — his/her own undivided coparcenary interest) by will.
• A Hindu cannot will away more than his/her own notional share of joint family property; the shares that would devolve to other coparceners by birth cannot be defeated by will.
• Will formalities (signature, attestation by 2 witnesses, etc.) are governed by the Indian Succession Act, 1925 (Sections 63, 68-90 apply to Hindus per Section 57 & Schedule III of ISA).
• Registration of a will is optional, not mandatory, in India — but strongly recommended for evidentiary value.

3. INDIAN SUCCESSION ACT, 1925 — CHRISTIANS (Part V, Chapter II, Sections 31–49)

Applies to Christians (including Indian Christians) who are not covered by a special local Christian succession law, and to inter-faith couples married under the Special Marriage Act.

3.1 Three classes of heirs

The Act recognises three types of heirs for Christians: the spouse, the lineal descendants, and the kindred.

3.2 Widow/Widower + children (Section 33)

If the deceased has left lineal descendants (children/grandchildren), one-third of the property belongs to the widow and the remaining two-thirds go to the lineal descendants.

3.3 Widow + no children, but other kindred alive (Section 33(b))

If there is no lineal descendant but there are other kindred, one-half of the property belongs to the widow and the other half goes to the kindred.

3.4 Widow + no kindred at all (Section 33(c))

If there is no kindred either, the whole of the property belongs to the widow.

3.5 Small estates (Section 33A) — ₹5,000 rule

Where the net value of the property exceeds ₹5,000, the widow is entitled to ₹5,000 of it as a charge on the whole property (with 4% interest from date of death), in addition to her share in the residue distributed under Section 33. Important exception: Section 33A's small-estate top-up specifically excludes Indian Christians — it mainly benefits other categories covered by Section 33A(a).

3.6 No widow left (Section 34)

Property goes entirely to lineal descendants, or if none, to kindred, according to Sections 36–49.

3.7 Widower's rights (Section 35)

A widower has the same rights in his deceased wife's property as a widow would have if he had predeceased her.

3.8 Rules among children/grandchildren (Sections 36–40)

• Only children survive → divided equally among them (per capita).
• Mix of surviving children and grandchildren of a predeceased child → distributed by branches (per stirpes) — a predeceased child's share is divided among that child's own children.
• Worked example: if the residue after the widow's 1/3 is ₹20 lakh, and there are 2 living children plus 1 predeceased child (survived by 2 grandchildren), the ₹20 lakh is split into 3 branches; living children take their full branch share, and the grandchildren split their deceased parent's branch share between them.

3.9 No lineal descendants — kindred rules (Sections 42–49)

• Father alive → father takes all (subject to widow's share already carved out).
• Father dead → mother and siblings (and children of predeceased siblings) share equally/per stirpes.
• If no parents/siblings/descendants exist, property is divided equally among the nearest degree of kindred.

3.10 No heirs at all

Property escheats to the Government.

3.11 Practical notes

• A child in the womb is treated as a living person and property vests in it immediately, provided the child is later born alive; if stillborn, that share is treated as if the heir never existed.
• There is no distinction between ancestral and self-acquired property in Christian succession law, and no gender-based difference in shares among children of the same degree.
• There is no statutory recognition of adoption for Christians in India — an adopted child cannot claim succession rights unless a specific custom of adoption is proven.
• Historical note: pre-1925, Christians in Travancore-Cochin (Kerala) had a discriminatory local law (Travancore Christian Succession Act, 1916) giving daughters only 1/4th of a son's share; this was struck down by the Supreme Court in Mary Roy v. State of Kerala (1986), bringing Kerala Christians under the ISA 1925 with equal shares.

4. INDIAN SUCCESSION ACT, 1925 — PARSIS (Part V, Chapter III, Sections 50–56)

Parsis have their own distinct scheme (not "widow gets a fraction, rest to kids" like Christians — instead everyone in the immediate family, including the widow/widower, shares as roughly equal units, with a specific weighting for the spouse).

4.1 Parsi dies leaving widow/widower AND children (Section 51)

The property is divided among the widow/widower and children so that the widow/widower and each child receive equal shares (i.e., if there's a widow + 2 children, it's divided into 3 equal shares, not a fixed fraction to the widow).

• (A nuance long-recognized in practice: where there are also grandchildren of a predeceased child, that branch collectively gets a half-share of what a living child would get, split among them — designed to balance per-branch fairness.)

4.2 Parsi dies leaving only children, no widow/widower (Section 51(b))

Property is divided equally among the children.

4.3 No lineal descendants, but a widow/widower of the deceased or of a deceased lineal descendant survives (Section 53)

A structured formula applies: a share is set aside for such widow(s)/widower(s), and the residue is then distributed among the relatives of the intestate in the order specified in Part I of Schedule II, with next-of-kin standing first in that Schedule preferred over those standing second, and so on — provided that each male and female relative standing in the same degree of relationship (propinquity) receives an equal share. This is notable because Parsi law gives equal shares to male and female relatives of the same degree, unlike some other systems.

4.4 No heirs at all

Escheats to Government.

4.5 Wills

Testamentary succession for Parsis is governed by ISA 1925 Part VI, same formalities as everyone else except Muslims.

5. MUSLIM PERSONAL LAW (Uncodified — governed by Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937)

Critical structural difference: Muslim inheritance law is not codified into a single statute like Hindu/Christian law. It draws directly from the Quran, Hadith, and school-specific jurisprudence (fiqh). It is NOT covered by the Uniform Civil Code debate resolution yet — Muslims remain governed by their personal law for succession as of the current legal position. Always search for the current status if the law changes.

5.1 Sunni (Hanafi) Law — majority in India

Three classes of heirs, in strict priority:

1. Sharers (Quranic heirs) — 12 specified relatives with fixed fractional shares laid down in the Quran: husband, wife, father, true grandfather, mother, true grandmother, daughter, son's daughter, full sister, consanguine sister, uterine sister/brother. The shares are fixed fractions such as ½, ¼, ⅛, ⅔, ⅓, and ⅙.
2. Residuaries (Asaba) — take whatever remains after Sharers are paid, in a fixed order (mainly male agnatic relatives: sons, son's sons, father, brothers, etc.). A son typically acts as a residuary.
3. Distant Kindred — relatives who inherit only if there are no Sharers or Residuaries available (except the spouse, who is never fully excluded).

Some illustrative fixed shares:

• A husband takes ½ of his wife's estate if she left no lineal descendants, and ¼ if she did.
• A wife takes ¼ of her husband's estate if he left no lineal descendants, and ⅛ if he did (and this ¼/⅛ is split equally among multiple widows).
• A sole daughter takes ½ of the estate as a Sharer; if there is more than one daughter (and no sons), all daughters jointly take ⅔.
• If the deceased left both son(s) and daughter(s), the daughters stop being Sharers and become Residuaries along with the sons — the estate is then distributed so each son gets exactly double what each daughter gets ("2:1 rule").
• Mother generally takes ⅙ (or ⅓ in specific situations with no children/multiple siblings).

Adjustment doctrines:

• Doctrine of Aul (increase/abatement): if the sum of Sharers' fractional entitlements exceeds 1 (unity), each share is proportionately reduced. This doctrine is recognized in Sunni law.
• Doctrine of Radd (return): if there is a residuary share left over with no residuary heir to take it, that surplus is re-distributed back among the Sharers in proportion to their existing shares (except spouse, who typically doesn't get a Radd share unless no other heir exists).
• Distribution under Sunni law is per capita (per head) rather than per branch/stirpes.

Escheat: If a Muslim dies leaving no Sharers, Residuaries, or Distant Kindred, the estate escheats to the State.

5.2 Shia (Ithna Ashari) Law — key differences from Sunni

• Shia law follows the general principles of Ithna-Ashari jurisprudence and interprets Quranic rules more broadly than the strict Sunni interpretation.
• Shia law does not recognize the doctrine of Aul (increase), though it does recognize Radd (return).
• Shia law classifies heirs differently — into two main classes (Consanguinity/Nasab and Marriage/Sabab based, further sub-divided) rather than the Sunni's three-tier Sharer/Residuary/Distant-Kindred structure, and generally allows a wider circle of blood relatives (including some female lines) to inherit alongside closer male agnates, unlike the strict Sunni agnatic preference.

5.3 Wills (Wasiyat) under Muslim law

• Under Shariat law, a Muslim can bequeath only up to one-third (1/3) of the net estate by will — without the consent of the other legal heirs. A bequest exceeding 1/3, or a bequest in favour of an existing legal heir, requires the consent of all other heirs given after the testator's death to be valid.
• No specific written or attestation formality is mandated for a Muslim will under classical law (oral wills are valid if intention is proved), though for practical/evidentiary reasons a written, signed, witnessed will is always recommended in modern practice, and courts increasingly expect documentary proof.

5.4 Daughters' rights (modern reaffirmation)

Daughters have a mandatory, Shariat-protected share in their father's property, and this right has been affirmed by Indian courts, even though the son:daughter ratio is generally 2:1.

6. SPECIAL MARRIAGE ACT, 1954 — Inter-Faith / Civil Marriages

• Section 21 of the Special Marriage Act, 1954: succession to the property of a person whose marriage is solemnized under this Act (a civil marriage) is governed by the Indian Succession Act, 1925 — regardless of the original religion of the parties — unless both parties are Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, or Jain, in which case Section 21A carves them back into the Hindu Succession Act, 1956.
• This is a critical branch point for app logic: "Married under Special Marriage Act?" → if yes and either party is not Hindu/Buddhist/Sikh/Jain → route to Indian Succession Act (Christian-style spouse/lineal-descendant/kindred scheme is NOT used here — the general ISA intestacy rules under Part II, primarily Section 33's near-equivalent for "exempted persons," apply, distinct from the Christian-specific chapter). If both are H/B/S/J → HSA applies as normal.

7. WILLS (TESTATE SUCCESSION) — GENERAL RULES (Indian Succession Act, 1925, Part VI)

Applies to everyone except Muslims (whose wills follow Muslim personal law above).

7.1 Who can make a will

Any person of sound mind, not a minor (18+, or 21+ if a guardian was appointed for the minor's person/property). Married women, and persons who are deaf, dumb, or blind (but understand what they're doing) can validly make wills.

7.2 Formalities for a valid will (Section 63, ISA)

1. Signed by the testator (or by someone else in the testator's presence and by their direction).
2. Signature must show intent to give effect to the will.
3. Attested by at least two witnesses, each of whom must see the testator sign (or acknowledge the signature), and each witness must sign in the testator's presence. Witnesses do not need to know the contents of the will.
4. A beneficiary should not be a witness — under Section 67, a bequest to an attesting witness (or their spouse) is void, though the will itself remains valid and the witness count still holds.

7.3 Registration of a will

• Not mandatory in India (Registration Act, 1908, Section 18 makes will registration optional, unlike sale deeds/gift deeds which require compulsory registration above certain value).
• A registered will carries a strong evidentiary presumption of genuineness and is harder to challenge, is safely stored with the Sub-Registrar, and reduces probate/litigation friction, but an unregistered will is equally legally valid if the Section 63 formalities are met.
• Probate: A court process to establish the validity of a will and grant legal authority to the executor. Under Section 213 ISA, probate is mandatory for wills made by Christians/Parsis in the erstwhile Presidency towns (Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata) or wherever the will relates to immovable property in those areas; probate is generally not mandatory for Hindus outside those towns, but is still commonly obtained for large or disputed estates or wherever banks/registrars insist on it before mutation.
• Revocation: marriage does not automatically revoke a will for Parsis/Christians under the ISA in India (unlike English common law) — the Act specifically provides that marriage shall not revoke a will or codicil. A will can be revoked by a later will, a written revocation-declaration, or destruction with intent to revoke.

7.4 Codicils

A codicil is a supplementary document that amends/adds to an existing will without replacing it; it must meet the same signing/attestation formalities.

8. NOMINATION vs. SUCCESSION — The Most Misunderstood Area (Very Important for the App)

This is the area with the most real-world confusion, and where your app can add the most value by flagging the correct legal position per asset class.

8.1 The core doctrine

The Supreme Court has, across asset classes, resisted converting nomination into a third mode of succession alongside testamentary and intestate succession. A general (and legally incorrect) understanding among the public is that naming a nominee on a bank account, insurance policy, demat account, PF, or gratuity automatically makes the nominee the absolute legal owner after death — but courts have repeatedly held the nominee is usually only a trustee/custodian holding the asset for the actual legal heirs.

8.2 Asset-by-asset legal position

8.3 The single exception: "beneficial nominee" under amended Insurance Act

As of the 2015 amendment to Section 39, if a spouse, parent, or child is named as nominee on a life insurance policy, that nominee can be treated as a "beneficial nominee" entitled to keep the proceeds for themselves rather than purely as trustee — this is the one clear statutory carve-out where nomination can approximate ownership, though even here disputes among competing Class-I heirs are not fully foreclosed by courts in every case.

8.4 Practical implication for the app

Your app's decision logic should always show, for every financial asset type:

1. Who is the nominee (if any)?
2. Legal status: "Nominee will receive the asset from the institution, BUT is legally obligated to hand it over to the rightful legal heirs under succession law" (with the life-insurance beneficial-nominee exception flagged separately).
3. What actually determines ownership: a valid, later-in-time Will > personal-law intestate succession rules (if no will) — nomination is never the final word except for the beneficial-insurance-nominee carve-out.
4. Recommendation banner: nominations should be treated as an operational/logistical tool, not a substitute for a will, and should be reviewed after every major life event (marriage, childbirth, divorce, death of an existing nominee).

9. DECISION-TREE / SCENARIO LOGIC FOR APP DESIGN

Below is a structured scenario map you can convert directly into app branching logic ("Who gets what if the deceased person is dying and X is/isn't true").

STEP 1 — Determine governing law

IF deceased is Muslim → Muslim Personal Law branch (Section 5)
ELSE IF deceased is Christian (and no special local law applies) → ISA 1925 Christian branch (Section 3)
ELSE IF deceased is Parsi → ISA 1925 Parsi branch (Section 4)
ELSE IF deceased is Hindu/Buddhist/Sikh/Jain → Hindu Succession Act branch (Section 2)
ELSE IF marriage was under Special Marriage Act & either spouse is not H/B/S/J → ISA 1925 general branch (Section 6)
ELSE → ISA 1925 general "exempted persons" branch (covers e.g. Jews and others not otherwise covered)

STEP 2 — Was there a valid Will?

IF Will exists AND meets Section 63 formalities (signed + 2 witnesses) AND not revoked:
    → Testamentary succession governs (Section 7)
    → BUT: check personal-law limits —
        - Muslim: only 1/3 of estate can be willed away without all-heirs' consent (rest follows intestate rules)
        - Hindu: can only will away own separate share / own coparcenary interest, not others' birthright shares
        - Christian/Parsi: can generally will away entire self/separate estate freely
    → IF Will is disputed / probate required (Presidency towns for Christians/Parsis) → route through probate court first
ELSE → Intestate succession rules of the applicable personal law govern (Sections 2–5)

STEP 3 — Was there a nomination on specific assets?

FOR EACH financial asset (bank a/c, insurance, PF, shares, mutual fund, PPF, etc.):
    IF nominee exists:
        → Institution pays/transmits to nominee (fast-track, for discharge purposes only)
        → Nominee holds asset AS TRUSTEE for legal heirs (per Section 8), UNLESS:
            - Asset is life insurance AND nominee is spouse/parent/child (Section 39(7) "beneficial nominee") → nominee may retain
            - Asset is PPF AND depositor explicitly elected "absolute beneficial owner" for the nominee → nominee may retain
        → Final legal ownership still determined by Will (if any) or intestate succession rules
    ELSE (no nomination):
        → Legal heirs must produce succession certificate / legal heirship certificate / probate / letters of administration to claim the asset directly from the institution

STEP 4 — Who are the surviving family members? (branches within intestate succession)

Build a form capturing:

• Marital status of deceased (married/widowed/divorced/unmarried) & number of spouses (relevant for Muslim polygamy — up to 4 wives share the fixed wife-quota equally)
• Children (living), and for any pre-deceased child: whether that child left children of their own (grandchildren) — needed for per-stirpes calculations
• Parents living?
• Siblings living? (relevant mainly for Christian "no descendants" branch, Muslim residuary/distant-kindred branch, and Hindu Class II)
• Any relative who converted to another religion (Hindu-law disqualification issue)
• Any relative disqualified for murder of the deceased
• For Hindus: was there a family partition, and if so, was it via a registered deed before 20 Dec 2004? (this affects daughters' coparcenary claims)

STEP 5 — Special situations to model explicitly

1. Child in the womb at time of death — treated as already born for inheritance purposes; share is held in reserve and vests only if the child is later born alive (Christian/general rule; similar logic under Muslim law for a child already conceived at the time of death — a child not yet conceived does NOT inherit under Muslim law).
2. No heirs traceable at all — property escheats to the Government (State) under every one of these Acts.
3. Remarried widow (Hindu) — a widow of a pre-deceased son/son's son/brother who has remarried before the intestate's death is excluded from inheriting through that deceased relative's line.
4. Adopted child — valid and equal-status heir under Hindu law (post statutory adoption); not automatically recognized under Christian law (no statutory basis) unless a specific custom is proven; recognized differently under Muslim law (adoption is not recognized in the Hindu sense at all — Muslim law does not have true "adoption" for inheritance purposes; an adopted/fostered child does not inherit unless bequeathed up to 1/3 by will).
5. Illegitimate children — under Hindu law, an illegitimate child can inherit from the mother and, in some interpretations, has limited rights via the mother's estate but not generally as a Class I heir of the father in the same way as a legitimate child (courts have expanded some rights under Article 21 jurisprudence — flag as "consult a lawyer, evolving area"). Under Muslim law, illegitimate children generally do not inherit from the father (Shia law is stricter here than Sunni in some regards). Under Christian/Parsi law under the ISA, legitimacy issues are determined by the general law of legitimacy, and illegitimate children generally do not inherit unless specifically provided for by will.
6. Simultaneous death (commorientes) — where it cannot be established who died first (e.g., accident), Section 108 of the Indian Evidence Act (now Section 121 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023) presumes, for succession purposes, that the younger person survived the elder, in the absence of other proof — courts also sometimes apply "no survivorship presumed" rules under general law; this should be flagged as a "consult a lawyer" edge case in the app, since outcomes are fact-specific.
7. HUF/coparcenary calculator (Hindus only) — needs the "notional partition" logic from Section 2.5 above, distinct from simple intestate succession of self-acquired property.
8. Multiple wives (Muslim, or pre-1955 Hindu marriages still recognized) — the fixed wife-quota (e.g., ¼ or ⅛ under Muslim law) is divided equally among all wives, not multiplied.

10. QUICK-REFERENCE COMPARISON TABLE (Spouse + Children scenario, the most common case)

11. SOURCES / STATUTES TO LINK IN THE APP

• Hindu Succession Act, 1956 (as amended by Act 39 of 2005) — full text: indiacode.nic.in
• Indian Succession Act, 1925 (Act No. 39 of 1925) — full text: indiacode.nic.in
• Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937
• Special Marriage Act, 1954
• Insurance Act, 1938 (Section 39, as amended 2015)
• Companies Act, 2013 (Section 72)
• Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (Section 45ZA)
• Key SC judgments to cite in-app: Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma (2020), Danamma v. Amar (2018), Sarbati Devi v. Usha Devi (1984), Shakti Yezdani v. Jayanand Jayant Salgaonkar (2024), Mary Roy v. State of Kerala (1986)

12. RECOMMENDED APP FEATURES (based on this legal map)

1. Religion/personal-law selector as the first onboarding question (with Special Marriage Act override toggle).
2. Will Y/N toggle, with sub-checks for validity formalities and personal-law caps (Muslim 1/3 rule; Hindu self-share-only rule).
3. Family tree builder capturing spouse(s), children (living/pre-deceased + their children), parents, siblings — feeding the Class I/II, Sharer/Residuary, or Widow/Descendant/Kindred engines depending on religion.
4. Asset-by-asset nominee tracker, each asset tagged with its correct legal treatment (trustee vs. beneficial owner) per Section 8's table.
5. Coparcenary/HUF calculator for Hindu joint-family property with notional-partition math.
6. Muslim Sharer/Residuary/Aul-Radd calculator implementing the fixed fractions and adjustment doctrines.
7. "Red flag" edge-case module for: illegitimate children, adopted children, disqualified heirs (murder/conversion), simultaneous death, remarried widows, and small-estate (₹5,000) rules — each flagged as "consult a lawyer" rather than auto-computed, since these are fact-heavy and litigation-prone areas.
8. Disclaimer footer on every output screen: "This is general legal information, not legal advice. Please consult a qualified lawyer before acting on any succession/inheritance matter."