Who inherits when a Hindu dies without a will?

First establish the applicable succession law. Then identify the deceased’s own interest, whether an effective will covers that property, and the relatives who survived the deceased (including qualifying descendants of predeceased children). A person can be intestate in respect of some property even if a will deals effectively with other property: section 3(g) defines intestacy by the property left without an effective testamentary disposition.

This page’s Class I/Class II route is the central section 8 route for a male Hindu. A woman’s intestate property follows sections 15–16, with property-origin exceptions. Section 6 is a separate step where a Mitakshara coparcenary interest must first be identified. Do not divide assets belonging partly to another owner as if the deceased owned them all.

Section 8 gives priority to Class I heirs, then Class II if there is no Class I heir, then agnates and finally cognates. Under section 9, Class I heirs take together to the exclusion of the other classes. Class II is not one pool: an earlier numbered entry excludes later entries. The father is in Class II entry I; the mother is in Class I. Thus a father and mother are not interchangeable positions on the male-heir chart.

Section 10 distributes Class I shares. A widow takes one share; if there are multiple widows, they take that one share together. Each surviving son, daughter and the deceased’s mother takes one share. Each predeceased son’s or daughter’s qualifying branch takes one share between its members, with further distribution governed by Rule 4. Consequently ‘Class I takes together’ does not mean every individual descendant receives an identical fraction.

Section 11 divides equally among heirs in the same applicable Class II entry. Sections 12–13 order agnates and cognates by degrees. Section 20 also preserves the right of a child in the womb at the death who is later born alive. A current family list should not omit that possibility or descendants just because their parent died earlier.

Prepare a dated family list, death details, title and acquisition records, any will, earlier partition or release documents, and information about debts or co-ownership. This is an explanatory preparation list, not a universal filing checklist. A legal-heir certificate, succession certificate, land mutation and ownership dispute are different matters; the Act does not make a single certificate or mutation entry a substitute for resolving every title question.