Up to 4th line of Hindu descendants can claim share in ancestral wealth

However, assets inherited from one's maternal grandfather are not regarded as ancestral

The Supreme Court (SC) recently declared that a Hindu father or the manager of a Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) has the power to make a gift of ancestral property for a ‘pious purpose’, but such an alienation can’t be permitted ‘out of love and affection’.  

A petitioner had filed a suit against his father­ and another person called KC Laxmana for partition and separate possession of his one­-third share in the property, and for a declaration that the gift or settlement deed executed by ­his father in favour of the second defendant­, KC Laxmana, be declared null and void.

Bharat Chugh, former