The Supreme Court, on September 1, clarified that children born from a void or voidable marriage are entitled to inherit their parent’s share in a joint Hindu family property. However, the child cannot claim rights to the property of other family members. A voidable marriage is one that can be invalidated by either party through a decree, while a void marriage is invalid from the beginning.

In determining the inheritance rights of a child born of such a marriage, the first step is to calculate the parent’s share in the ancestral property through a ”notional partition.” Once the share of the deceased parent is ascertained, the child can claim a portion of the property.

The ruling was based on Section 16 of the Hindu Marriage Act, which legitimizes children born from void or voidable marriages. This legitimacy, recognized by the Hindu Marriage Act, should be reflected in the Hindu Succession Act. Children from such marriages are to be treated as legitimate in terms of inheritance.

The case before the three-judge Bench was focused on an amended provision in the Hindu Marriage Act, Section 16(3). The case was referred to a larger Bench in 2011 after a Division Bench of the apex court refused to follow past precedents and championed the cause of children born out of illegitimate marriages. [...] “With changing social norms of legitimacy in every society, including ours, what was illegitimate in the past may be legitimate today. The concept of legitimacy stems from social consensus, in the shaping of which various social groups play a vital role,” Justice Ganguly, who authored the 2011 judgment, had observed. During the hearings on the reference, Chief Justice Chandrachud had agreed with the Division Bench’s findings that children from void and voidable marriages had rights over the property, whether self-acquired or ancestral, of their parents. [Extracted with edits and revisions from “Children from void, voidable marriages entitled to parents’ share in ancestral property: Supreme Court”, by Krishnadas Rajagopal, The Hindu, https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/children-from-void-voidable-marriages-are-legitimate-can-claim-rights-in-parents-properties-sc/article67259229.ece ]

Ashima and Ashok got married to each other in a traditional Hindu ceremony in Kolkata, after which they both moved to the USA, where Ashok had a job. In the USA, they had a child, whom they named Gogol. Many years later, Ashima found that Ashok was already married to Sushma before their wedding in Kolkata. Ashok and Sushma also had a child from their marriage, Arpita, who was older than Gogol by 4 years. Ashok explained to Ashima that although he had no intention of cheating on her, he had to keep his marriage to Sushma a secret since his parents would have never agreed as Sushma belonged to a different caste. Ashima is shocked to learn that her marriage to Ashok is void as per Hindu marriage laws since Ashok was already married before their wedding. She is trying to explore possibilities so that Gogol doesn’t lose his inheritance from his father’s side of the family. Based on your reading of the passage, what do you think is the correct position with respect to Gogol’s inheritance rights?