A local court dismissed a lawsuit brought by three daughters who were Hindus and sought their mother’s posthumous retirement benefits on the grounds that she had converted to Islam.
The woman’s Muslim son was declared by the court to be her Class I heir and legitimate successor because the Mohammedan laws prohibit her Hindu children from succeeding her.
The case information states that Ranjan Tripathi lost her husband, a Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) employee, in 1979, leaving behind a pregnant wife and two daughters. Based on sympathy, BSNL let the widow to work as a clerk. She did not, however, remain with her family for a long time, and her three girls were cared for by their paternal family.
Ranjan moved in with a Muslim man after leaving her family. The three daughters filed a maintenance lawsuit against her in 1990, alleging abandonment and that she was hired by the department to care for the kids as well.
The case was won by the daughters. However, the disagreement was later resolved, and the daughters argued that they had not waived their rights to her retirement payments.
After converting to Islam, Ranjan married the Muslim man in 1995, and the next year, she changed her name in her service records to Rehana Malek. They gave birth to a son. She designated her son as her nominee in her will before she passed away in 2009.
After Ranjan alias Rehana passed away, her three children filed a lawsuit in the city civil court, asserting their right to their mother’s provident fund, gratuity, insurance, leave encashment, and other benefits by alleging that they are Class I heirs because they are her biological daughters.
Regarding their mother’s relationship with the Muslim man, her conversion to Islam, and her son’s eligibility to replace her, the three sisters made contrasting assertions.
A notarized statement, her marriage registration, and the entry of the nomination in her service records were used to show her conversion, and the court dismissed their arguments based on factual parts of the estoppel principle.
According to the law, if the decedent was a Muslim, her Class I heirs cannot be Hindus, the court said. Only Muslims may be the immediate heirs of a deceased Muslim. The mother gave birth to a boy after she converted to Islam, wed, and became a Muslim.
In spite of being the daughters of the dead Ranjan alias Rehana, the Hindu plaintiffs are not eligible for inheritance because she converted to Islam and they are Hindus.
