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. Section 30 preserves:

   • The right to make a will, overriding intestate succession (correct answer)
   • Only intestate succession
   • A woman's right to remarry
   • The pious obligation doctrine

   Explanation. Section 30 preserves the right to dispose of property by will, which always takes priority over intestate succession.

2. Under section 30, a Hindu may dispose of property by will in accordance with:

   • Only the Hindu Succession Act
   • The Indian Succession Act, 1925 or other law applicable to Hindus (correct answer)
   • Only local custom
   • Only the Indian Contract Act

   Explanation. Section 30 lets any Hindu dispose of property by will in accordance with the Indian Succession Act, 1925 or any other law applicable to Hindus.

3. The Explanation to Section 30 made a coparcener's undivided interest:

   • Incapable of being willed, permanently
   • Capable of being disposed of by will (correct answer)
   • Automatically part of an HUF
   • Subject to Section 14 exclusively

   Explanation. The Explanation treats a male Hindu's interest in Mitakshara coparcenary property as property capable of being disposed of by will.

4. A Hindu's will must follow:

   • The Hindu Succession Act exclusively
   • The Indian Succession Act, 1925 or other law applicable to Hindus (correct answer)
   • Muslim personal law
   • The Indian Contract Act

   Explanation. Section 30 requires a will to follow the Indian Succession Act, 1925 or other law applicable to Hindus.

5. Section 5 of the Hindu Succession Act does not apply to:

   • Property of a Hindu male
   • Property whose succession is regulated by the Indian Succession Act, 1925 because of section 21 of the Special Marriage Act, 1954 (correct answer)
   • Property of a Hindu female
   • Agricultural land only

   Explanation. Section 5 excludes three kinds of property, including property governed by the Indian Succession Act, 1925 through section 21 of the Special Marriage Act, 1954.

6. Section 3(2) says that words in the masculine gender:

   • Always include females
   • Do not include females unless the context requires (correct answer)
   • Apply only to class II heirs
   • Apply only to wills

   Explanation. Section 3(2) says that words in the masculine gender do not include females unless the context requires.

7. Under section 3(1)(f), an heir is:

   • Only a male relative
   • Any person, male or female, entitled to succeed to the property of an intestate under the Act (correct answer)
   • Only a son
   • Only a person named in a will

   Explanation. Section 3(1)(f) covers any person, male or female, entitled to succeed to the property of an intestate.

8. In H. Venkatachala Iyengar v. B.N. Thimmajamma (1959), the Court held that where suspicious circumstances surround a will:

   • It is automatically invalid
   • The propounder must remove the suspicion and satisfy the court's conscience (correct answer)
   • Only the beneficiaries need to testify
   • The will is valid if registered

   Explanation. The propounder carries a special burden to clear suspicious circumstances before a will can be accepted as genuine.