ORDER

This writ petition is filed for the following relief:

“to issue an appropriate Writ Order or direction more particularly one in the nature of Writ of Mandamus by declaring that the restriction imposed by the Respondents vide circular No.SEBI/HO/MRD/DP/OW/P/2016/25739/1 dated 14.09.2016 restricting the married daughters not to operate HUF Account as Karta, is absolutely illegal, arbitrary, unconstitutional and violative of Article 14, 21 and 300-A of Constitution of India R/w.Hindu Succession Act and consequently, direct the Respondents to declare that the Petitioner is entitled to operate Pawan Mohanlal Shah HUF Account including NSDL Demat Account Axis Bank Ltd., bearing Client ID:12658000 DP ID:

IN300484 and pass..”

2. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioners and the learned counsel for the 1st respondent.

3. The learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that one late Pawan Mohanlal Shah opened an account with the 4th respondent bank. His family had an ancestral temple known as Gopeshwar Temple, situated at 22-4-538, 539, Temple Etebar Chowk, Hyderabad. The same was being maintained from out of the Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) account by said Pawan Mohanlal Shah. To derive more funds, he also opened a Demat account in the 4th respondent Bank. Late Pawan Mohanlal Shah was blessed with three daughters, namely, Monish Shah, Dr. Anurita Menon and Dr. Aditi Shah. There was no male member in the family. Sri Pawan Mohanlal Shah passed away on 10.02.2020 leaving behind his wife and three daughters. His elder daughter was a permanent citizen of United States of America. After the death of Pawan Mohanlal Shah, his wife, and his elder and younger daughters issued a declaration authorizing his 2nd daughter Dr. Anurita Menon to maintain the HUF Account in the 4th respondent Bank including Demat Account to maintain the temple as there were sentiments attached to it. After the said declaration made by the family, an application was submitted by Dr. Anurita Menon to the 4th respondent Bank to permit her to operate the bank account and Demat account which was in the name of HUF, but the 4th respondent bank furnished a copy of circular dated 14.09.2016 issued by the respondents No.1 to 3 stating that a married daughter could not be a Karta of the family and she was not entitled to operate HUF Account. Challenging the same, Dr. Anurita Menon filed W.P. No.747 of 2022 before this Court, in the capacity of representing M/s.Pawan Mohanlal Shah HUF. When the said writ petition came up for admission on 06.01.2022, on the observations of this Court that her mother and sisters also should be reflected as parties to the proceedings, the said writ petition was withdrawn seeking liberty to file a fresh writ petition.

4. The present writ petition is filed since the petitioners were governed by the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 and Section 3 (f) defines ‘Heir’ as including a female and Section 6 deals with the coparcener which includes the daughter with equal rights that of a son. Similarly, under Section 8 of the Act, the properties of a male would devolve among the sons and the daughters as per the Schedule – I and similarly Section 29 would devolve equal rights including right of inheritance among the sons and daughters. The impugned circular issued by the respondents imposing restrictions for operating the HUF account by excluding married daughter was illegal and was violative of the constitutional provisions of Articles 14, 21 and 300-A and relied upon the judgments of the Hon’ble Apex court in Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma and Others1 and of the High Court of Delhi in Mrs. Sujata Sharma v. Shri Manu Gupta2.

5. Notices were served on respondents No.1 to 4 and Sri C.V. Narasimham filed vakalat on behalf of 1st respondent and also filed counter

1 AIR 2020 SC 3717

2 2015 SCC OnLine Del 14424

6. The learned counsel for the 1st respondent contended that the 1st respondent deleted the words “except married daughters”