Kochi: The Kerala High Court has held that a child born within four months of a couple’s marriage cannot be denied an equal share in the father’s property, provided the child is found to be legitimate.
A division bench comprising Justices Sathish Ninan and P. Krishna Kumar was hearing an appeal filed by the widow of a man who died intestate in 2012, along with his children, after a trial court rejected her plea for partition of the deceased’s property.
The lower court had excluded one child from inheritance on the ground that the child was born within four months of the marriage, Indian Express reported.
Setting aside that view, the High Court observed that once it is established that the child is the legitimate offspring of the deceased, she is entitled to the same share in the property as the other Class I heirs. The bench noted that the law leans strongly in favour of the legitimacy of a child born during the continuance of a valid marriage.
The court explained that even if a child is born within four months of marriage, Section 112 of the Indian Evidence Act creates a conclusive presumption of legitimacy, unless it is conclusively shown that the spouses had no access to each other at the time the child could have been conceived.
Accordingly, the High Court directed that the trial court’s order be modified and the properties be divided into five equal shares, with one share each allotted to the widow, the mother of the deceased, and all the children, including the child who had been excluded earlier.
The dispute arose from a partition suit concerning properties that originally belonged to the deceased, who passed away without leaving a will.
While the trial court had ordered partition among four heirs, it excluded one child born shortly after the marriage, making the question of the child’s legitimacy the central issue before the High Court.