What are Class I and Class II heirs of a Hindu male? Name them and give rules of distribution.

The Schedule to the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 divides the heirs of a Hindu male into two broad categories — Class I and Class II — governed respectively by Sections 8, 9, 10, and 11 of the Act. Together, they form the most elaborate and carefully structured scheme of enumerated heirs in any Indian succession law.

Class I Heirs

Class I heirs are also called preferential heirs and simultaneous heirs — preferential because the presence of even one of them excludes every heir in every subsequent category, and simultaneous because no Class I heir excludes another. They all inherit together, regardless of gender, treating the son and daughter in aequali jura.

The Class I heirs of a Hindu male (as amended by the Hindu Succession Amendment Act, 2005) are:

1. Son

2. Daughter

3. Widow

4. Mother

5. Son of a predeceased son

6. Daughter of a predeceased son

7. Son of a predeceased daughter

8. Daughter of a predeceased daughter

9. Widow of a predeceased son

10. Son of a predeceased son of a predeceased son

11. Daughter of a predeceased son of a predeceased son

12. Widow of a predeceased son of a predeceased son

13. Son of a predeceased daughter of a predeceased daughter (added in 2005)

14. Daughter of a predeceased daughter of a predeceased daughter (added in 2005)

15. Daughter of a predeceased son of a predeceased daughter (added in 2005)

16. Daughter of a predeceased daughter of a predeceased son (added in 2005)

A few important notes about the identity of these heirs are worth pausing on. "Son" means a legitimate son — natural born or adopted — including a posthumous son and a divided son. An illegitimate son has no inheritance rights though he is entitled to maintenance. Unchastity of the widow is no bar to her inheritance, and even if she remarries after the succession opens, she cannot be divested of the share she had already inherited. The "mother" always remains a mother, irrespective of remarriage, divorce, or unchastity — but a stepmother is not included here and only finds a place in Class II.

Rules of Distribution Among Class I Heirs — Section 10

Section 10 lays down four rules for calculating shares, and these are worth understanding carefully.

Rule 1 — The widow (or all widows together, in cases of pre-Act polygamous marriages) takes one share. If there are multiple widows, they together take one share and divide it equally among themselves.

Rule 2 — Each surviving son, each surviving daughter, and the mother of the intestate takes one share each — this is the per capita rule among direct heirs.

Rule 3 — The heirs in the branch of each predeceased son or predeceased daughter collectively take one share — the same share the predeceased parent would have taken had he or she been alive. This is the application of the per stirpes principle, or the doctrine of representation.

Rule 4 — Within such a branch, distribution is made per capita among its surviving members. Within the branch of a predeceased son, the widow (or widows) of that son together take one portion, each surviving child takes one portion, and any branch of his own predeceased son gets one portion at the next level.

An illustration makes this vivid. Suppose P dies leaving behind a son S, a widow W, his mother M, and the following descendants of a predeceased son PS: PS's widow PSW, PS's son PSS, and PS's daughter PSD. The property is first divided into four branches — S's branch (1 share), W (1 share), M (1 share), and PS's branch (1 share). So each takes one-quarter. Within PS's branch, PSW, PSS, and PSD divide the one-quarter equally, each taking one-twelfth of the whole.

Class II Heirs

Class II heirs are arranged in nine entries. The critical rule is that heirs in an earlier entry exclude those in every later entry entirely. Unlike Class I, Class II heirs are not simultaneous heirs across entries — an heir in Entry I would take the whole property to the complete exclusion of heirs in Entries II through IX. Within any single entry, however, all the heirs listed take simultaneously and per capita, sharing equally.

The nine entries of Class II are:

Notice a thought-provoking feature of this scheme: the father stands alone in Entry I, entirely excluded from Class I. Under classical Mitakshara law, the mother was considered closer in propinquity to the intestate than the father — the mother gave birth, while the father was a more distant ascendant in terms of daily dependence — and the Act perpetuates this understanding by placing the mother in Class I while the father stands first among Class II.

Rules of Distribution Among Class II Heirs — Section 11

Section 11 is brief and absolute in its operation: the property shall be divided between heirs specified in any one entry in Class II so that they share equally. All heirs within a single entry take per capita. So, for example, if an intestate dies leaving behind a son's daughter's son, a brother, and a sister (all in Entry II), the property will be divided equally into three shares, one-third each. The numerals used in sub-divisions of entries — such as (1), (2), (3), (4) — do not indicate any order of priority among them; they are merely a method of enumeration and all persons in those sub-divisions inherit together.Hindu-law-Mulla-23rd-edition-latest.pdf+1

One important qualification flows from Section 18: within the same entry, heirs related to the intestate by full blood are preferred over those related by half blood, provided the nature of the relationship is the same in every other respect. Thus, a full brother excludes a half-brother, and full brother's children are preferred over half-brother's children within Entry IV. Uterine relatives — those related through the same mother but a different father — are expressly excluded from Class II by the Explanation to the Schedule, which states that references to "brother" and "sister" do not include uterine brother or uterine sister. Uterine relatives can, however, succeed as cognates when both Class I and Class II fail.