Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/236



The law says :
 * There belong to the property of a person deceased four successive duties : first, his funeral ceremony and burial without superfluity of expense, yet without deficiency; next the discharge of his just debts from the whole of his remaining effects; then the payment of his legacies out of a third of what remains after his debts are paid; and lastly, the distribution of the residue among his successors.

The successors are thus described :
 * 1. Legal sharers; 2. residuaries; 3. distant kindred; 4. successors by contract; 5. acknowledged kindred; 6. universal legatee; 7. Crown.

“Legal sharers” are defined as “all those persons for whom specific shares have been appointed or ordained in the sacred text, the traditions, or with general assent”, and according to the table enumerating the 12 classes of sharers, include half-brothers also. “Residuaries” are “all persons for whom no share has been appointed, and who take the residue after the sharers have been satisfied, or the whole estate when there are no sharers”. It should here be noted that some legal sharers are as such, under certain conditions, excluded, and then rank as residuaries. “Distant kindred” are “all relations who are neither sharers nor residuaries”. “After the sharers are satisfied, if there remains a residue of the property left by the deceased, it is to be divided among the first class of heirs called residuaries. If there be no residuaries, the residue will revert to the sharers in proportion to their shares.”

I would not occupy your valuable space by giving definitions of the other successors. Suffice it to say that they do not include the poor at all, and that they can “take” only after the first three classes are exhausted.

The residuaries in their own right include, among others, “the 'offspring' of the father of the deceased, i.e., brothers, consanguine brothers, and their sons, how low soever”. Rule 12 of Section 1 says: “It is a general rule that a brother shall take double the share of a sister. The exception to it is in the case of brothers and sisters by the same mother only, but by different fathers.” And Rule 25, Section 11, says: “Where there are daughters or son's daughters and no brothers, the sisters take what remains after the daughters or son's daughters have realized their shares, such residue being half should there be only one daughter or son's daughter, and one third should there be two or more.” The two rules read together help us materially to determine the share the brother gets in the case in point.