The order of succession among the heirs referred to in section 15 shall be, and the distribution of the intestates property among those heirs shall take place according to the following rules, namely:—
Rule 1.—Among the heirs specified in sub-section (1) of section 15, those in one entry shall be preferred to those in any succeeding entry, and those including in the same entry shall take simultaneously.
Rule 2.—If any son or daughter of the intestate had pre-deceased the intestate leaving his or her own children alive at the time of the intestate's death, the children of such son or daughter shall take between them the share which such son or daughter would have taken if living at the intestate's death.
Rule 3.—The devolution of the property of the intestate on the heirs referred to in clauses (b), (d) and (e) of sub-section (1) and in sub-section (2) of section 15 shall be in the same order and according to the same rules as would have applied if the property had been the father's or the mother's or the husband's as the case may be, and such person had died intestate in respect thereof immediately after the intestate's death.
Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 16
Section 16 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 prescribes the order of succession and distribution among heirs of a female Hindu.
Rule 3: Devolution among heirs referred to in Section 15(1)(b), (d), and (e), and Section 15(2), takes place in the same order and manner as if the property belonged to the husband or father or mother, and they had died intestate immediately after the intestate's death.
Rule 3 of Section 16 introduces a legal fiction of sequential intestate death. When property reverts to the heirs of the father under Section 15(2)(a), the court must conceptually resurrect the father and apply Section 8 as of the date of the daughter's death, identifying his Class I and Class II heirs to effectuate distribution.