Case study: Can a woman claim her rights to ancestral property after changing religion?

NEW DELHI: Can a woman, who was born Hindu but later converted to Islam after marriage, claim her rights in ancestral property? The issue has made its way to a Delhi court in the form of a property suit filed by the woman against her brothers.

The woman's father died in 2010, leaving behind three legal heirs — the woman and her two brothers. Their mother had passed away earlier. The woman's counsel Amit Kumar said that her brothers took her signature on several documents on the pretext of dividing the property in three equal parts and obtained a general power of attorney (GPA).

For some time, the woman received her share of the rent from the tenants living in her property of 300 square yards. In 2013, she got married to a Muslim man, following which her brothers started making excuses when it came to paying her share of the money from the property, she alleged.

In 2015, however, the woman received a notice which stated that her GPA has been cancelled. The woman alleged that her brothers — after getting her signature on required documents — fraudulently got a relinquishment deed executed to dispossess her of her share of the ancestral property.

The woman's lawyer asserted that the brothers also threatened the woman. She also got to know that they were trying to sell off her share of the property.

The brothers, on the other hand, contested the claim of the woman, arguing that as she converted to Islam in 2013 and since the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, governing the transfer of property rights, applies only to Hindus she was not legally entitled to claim her right on the ancestral property.

Seeking an immediate dismissal of the woman's suit, the brothers also said that their sister had married a Muslim man after the death of her first husband, who was Hindu. They alleged that the woman had concealed this fact from the court.

"She is, therefore, not entitled to any equitable or discretionary relief," the brothers stressed.

The next hearing is scheduled for August 26