The Supreme Court (SC), dealing with the question if illegitimate children are entitled to a share in the coparcenary property under Section 16(3) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (HMA), has held that “a child who is legitimate under Section 16(1) and 16(2) of the HMA would, for the purposes of Section 3(1)(j) of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, fall within the ambit of the explanation ‘related by legitimate kinship’ and cannot be regarded as an ‘illegitimate child’”. The SC, further, noted that while conferring legitimacy to a child born out of void/voidable marriages the legislature has stipulated in Section 16(3) of HMA that such a child will have rights to or in the property of the parents and not in the property of any other person.
