Home  /  Indian Succession Act  /  Section 47

Section 47: Where intestate has left neither lineal descendant, nor father, nor mother

Indian Succession Act • Official Statutory Text & Practice Guide

Statutory Regulation
Legal Standard
Competent Court / Tribunal
Act 1925
Section 46 All 391 Sections of Indian Succession Act Section 48

Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 47

Section 47 regulates distribution where both parents and all lineal descendants are dead, providing that the estate is divided equally among surviving brothers and sisters and the children of deceased siblings by representation.

  • Core Legal Standard: Section 47 governs the succession of an orphan intestate.
  • Operational Mechanism: Where the deceased leaves neither lineal descendants, nor father, nor mother, the property belongs to his surviving brothers and sisters, and to the children of such of them as may have died.

The distribution follows the same stirpital representation established under Section 44: the property is divided into as many equal shares as there are surviving siblings plus deceased siblings leaving children. Surviving brothers and sisters take one share each, and the children of any deceased sibling take their parent's share equally. Under the proviso to Section 47, if all brothers and sisters are dead, the surviving nephews and nieces divide the estate equally per capita, rather than per stirpes.

Key Landmark Precedents:
  • Lazarus v. Lazarus, AIR 1977 Mad 332: The Madras High Court held that under Section 47, where all brothers and sisters are dead, their surviving children take per capita in equal shares, abandoning the stirpital division.
  • G. Kasturi v. Director of Harijan and Tribal Welfare, AIR 1990 Mad 302: The court affirmed that Section 47 shifts from stirpital representation to per capita distribution when all members of the sibling generation are deceased.
Legal Commentary:

The proviso to Section 47 is a vital trap for litigators: while living siblings trigger per stirpes division for the children of deceased siblings, the demise of ALL siblings transforms the succession among nephews and nieces into an equal per capita division. All surviving nephews and nieces take identical fractions regardless of their parentage.

Section 46 All 391 Sections of Indian Succession Act Section 48