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Section 37: Where intestate has left child or children only

Indian Succession Act • Official Statutory Text & Practice Guide

Statutory Regulation
Legal Standard
Competent Court / Tribunal
Act 1925
Section 36 All 391 Sections of Indian Succession Act Section 38

Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 37

Section 37 governs distribution where the intestate leaves only surviving children, enacting that the property (or residue) is divided equally among them, without distinction of gender or birth order.

  • Core Legal Standard: Section 37 establishes the basic rule of equal per capita distribution among children.
  • Operational Mechanism: Where the intestate leaves a surviving child or children and no more remote lineal descendants (such as grandchildren from a predeceased child), the property belongs to the surviving child, or is divided equally among the surviving children.

This provision is entirely gender-blind: sons and daughters inherit precisely equal shares. Furthermore, primogeniture is completely rejected; eldest, middle, and youngest children take identical fractions. If there is only one child, that child takes the entire property (or the entire two-thirds residue if a spouse survives).

Key Landmark Precedents:
  • Mary Roy v. State of Kerala, (1986) 2 SCC 209: In this historic landmark judgment, the Supreme Court struck down the Travancore Christian Succession Act—which limited a daughter's share to one-third of a son's share or Rs. 5,000—holding that Section 37 of the Indian Succession Act applies, guaranteeing absolute equality of inheritance between sons and daughters.
  • Solomon v. Solomon, AIR 1968 Del 223: The Delhi High Court affirmed that under Section 37, children take per capita in strictly equal proportions, with no preference given to male heirs.
Legal Commentary:

The Supreme Court's ruling in *Mary Roy* cemented Section 37 as a charter of gender equality for Indian Christian women. Any customary practice, family arrangement, or local enactment that seeks to deprive a daughter of an equal per capita share with her brothers is unconstitutional and void under Section 37.

Section 36 All 391 Sections of Indian Succession Act Section 38