Can a married daughter inherit father's land?

In 1972, Mina Ram was given three bigha two biswas of agricultural land in Shimla by the Himachal Pradesh Government under the Nautor rules. Despite the revenue officials being given the land, they never signed the patta (official land revenue document). When Mina Ram passed away in 1990, his wife Sewati Devi applied for the patta, but it remained unsigned.

After Sewati Devi's own passing in 2012, their daughter requested the patta, claiming her right as the Class-I legal heir under the Hindu Succession Act. However, the revenue officials refused, stating that married daughters are not eligible to get land under Nautor rules.

The daughter's lawyer, Advocate Sunil Chauhan, filed a case in the Himachal Pradesh High Court, arguing that the rules do not explicitly disqualify married daughters from applying for Nautor land. The court found that there was no provision in the rules that prevented a married daughter from succeeding to Nautor land as a legal heir.

Rule 8 of the rules restricts sons or daughters from applying for Nautor land during the lifetime of the father, but it does not create a post-marriage disqualification for married daughters. The court also relied on the changed legal position recognizing daughters' equal inheritance and coparcenary rights, as well as the Supreme Court's reasoning that excluding married daughters based solely on their marital status is a gender stereotype. Consequently, the rejection order was quashed, and the daughter's right to the land was upheld.