Intestate succession — MCQs

All questions with answers and explanations

Read the full set here, or use the practice card above to test yourself one question at a time.

1. Under Section 25, a murderer is disqualified from:

   • Only the property of the person murdered
   • The property of the person murdered, and any property whose succession the murder was meant to advance (correct answer)
   • Only movable property
   • Nothing, if acquitted in the criminal trial

   Explanation. Section 25's disqualification covers both the murdered person's property and any property the murder was intended to advance succession to.

2. Section 26 disqualifies:

   • The convert themselves, from all Hindu relatives' property
   • Only children born to the convert after conversion, and their descendants (correct answer)
   • All descendants regardless of when born
   • Only male descendants

   Explanation. Section 26 disqualifies only post-conversion-born children and their descendants, not the convert or pre-conversion children.

3. A child born to a convert BEFORE their conversion:

   • Is disqualified under Section 26
   • Is entirely unaffected by Section 26 (correct answer)
   • Loses rights only to agricultural property
   • Must reconvert to inherit

   Explanation. Section 26 applies only to children born after conversion — a pre-conversion child remains a fully qualified heir.

4. Section 27 provides that a disqualified person is treated as:

   • Having predeceased the intestate (correct answer)
   • Still entitled to a reduced share
   • Entitled to claim later if acquitted
   • Automatically reinstated after 10 years

   Explanation. Section 27 uses the fiction that a disqualified person had died before the intestate.

5. Section 28 abolishes disqualification on the ground of:

   • Murder
   • Conversion
   • Disease, defect or deformity (correct answer)
   • Bigamy

   Explanation. Section 28 abolishes every disqualification ground except those specifically stated in the Act, such as disease or deformity.

6. In Vellikannu v. R. Singaperumal (2005), the Court held Section 25 disqualification is:

   • Partial and conditional
   • Absolute and complete (correct answer)
   • Reversible on appeal
   • Limited to immovable property

   Explanation. Vellikannu held Section 25 disqualification is absolute and complete, operating through the Section 27 fiction.

7. The old Section 24, disqualifying certain widows who remarried before succession opened, was:

   • Never enacted
   • Omitted by the 2005 Amendment (correct answer)
   • Still in force today
   • Replaced by Section 26

   Explanation. Section 24 was omitted entirely by the 2005 Amendment, and remarriage is no longer a disqualifying ground.