Children from void, voidable marriages legitimate, entitled to parent's property: Supreme Court

livemint.com:

The Indian Express. The judgment came concerning another ruling delivered by a two-judge bench judgment in the case Revanasiddappa vs. Mallikarjun (2011) which gave a similar ruling that children born out of void/voidable marriage are entitled to the property of their parents whether self-acquired or ancestral.

"The birth of a child in such a relationship has to be viewed independently of the relationship of the parents. A child born in such a relationship is innocent and is entitled to all rights which are given to other children born in valid marriages.

This is the crux of the amendment in Section 16(3)," a bench of Justice (retired) GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly said in the 2011 judgment. The court elucidated that by Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, the coparceners' stake in a Hindu Mitakshara property is delineated as the portion of the property that they would have received had the property been partitioned just before their demise.

As per Section 16(3) of the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955, the children born from marriages considered invalid are bestowed with legitimacy. Nevertheless, it is imperative to recognize that Section 16(3) explicitly stipulates that these children are exclusively entitled to inherit their parents' assets, with no vested rights about other coparcenary shares.