LAW OF SUCCESSION AND INHERITANCE

Meaning of Succession and Inheritance

• When a person dies he or she leaves behind not family, friends but more importantly for our purposes rights and duties have to be finalized.
• Succession means the action or process of inheriting a title, office, property, etc.
• The right and transmission of the rights an obligations of the deceased to his heirs. 
• Succession signifies also the estate, rights and charges which a person leaves after his death, whether the property exceed the charges, or the charges exceed the property, or whether he has left only charges without property.
• The statutory rules of inheritance of a dead person's estate when the property is not given by the terms of a will, also called laws of "descent and distribution”.

• "Descent, or hereditary succession, is the title whereby a man on the death of his ancestor acquires his estate by right of representation, as his heir at law.
• Succession is defined as the entitlement by one or more persons to the legal patrimonial relationships of a deceased person and the consequent restitution of the assets that used to belong to that person.
• Examples
• (1) Both landlord and tenant have legal estates which may pass to others on sale, by way of gift or under the rules of testate or intestate succession.
• (2) All children whether born within or outside a legal marriage, are entitled to share in the intestate estate.
• Formal legal codes and courts often handle these disputes and govern the disposal of property in cases of intestate succession.

Definition of inheritance laid down by Manusmritti

न भ्रातरो न पितरः पुत्रा रिक्थहराः पितुः ।�पिता हरेदपुत्रस्य रिक्थं भ्रातर एव च ॥ १८५ ॥

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na bhrātaro na pitaraḥ putrā rikthaharāḥ pituḥ |�pitā haredaputrasya rikthaṃ bhrātara eva ca || 185 ||

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Sons alone shall inherit the father’s property, not brothers or fathers; but the father and brothers shall inherit the property of one who dies sonless.—(185)

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Yājñavalkya (2.135-136).—‘Wife, daughters, parents, brothers, brother’s sons, Sagotras, kinsmen, pupils, fellow-students; among these the succeeding inherits the property of a man dying without male issue, only in the absence of the preceding one. Such is the law for all castes.’

• Gautama (Do., 742).—‘The wife should obtain the property of one who dies childless.’

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Law of Succession

• The law of succession deals with the finalization of the debt and assets the deceased leaves behind.
• Law of succession comprises those legal rules or norms which regulate the devolution of a deceased person’s estate upon one or more persons.
• Thus the law of succession is concerned with what happens to a deceased person’s estate after his/ her death.

Modes of succession

• Succession may take place in one of 3 ways ;

1. Testamentary succession : मृत्युको उत्तराधिकार

in accordance with the will which the testator(a person who makes a will) regulates the succession.

2. Intestate succession : नेतृत्वको उत्तराधिकार

Through the operation of law of intestate succession, where the deceased did not leave a will – estate is intestate and governed by the laws of intestate succession.

Intestate succession applies to estates of persons who die intestate or leave no valid wills disposing of their property, thereby requiring the descent and distribution of their property in accordance with the laws providing therefore.

3. Pactum Successorium (contractual succession)

the only contract in which a person may regulate succession to the assets in his or her estate.

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Nepalese legal provisions relating to law of succession (Part 11)MCC