Section 2 and Section 3 of Hindu Succession Act: Application, Definitions and Interpretation
Sections 2 and 3 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 form part of the preliminary provisions of the Act. Section 2 identifies the persons to whom the Act applies, while Section 3 defines important expressions used throughout the succession law.
Act 30 of 1956 | Enacted and brought into force on 17 June 1956 | Page reviewed: 27 September 2026
What Sections 2 and 3 do
Section 2 sets the personal scope of the Hindu Succession Act. It covers Hindus in the statutory sense stated in the section, including Buddhists, Jainas and Sikhs, and contains a specific exception concerning members of Scheduled Tribes unless the Central Government otherwise directs by notification.
Section 3 is the interpretation provision. It defines expressions that are important when identifying heirs and tracing relationships, including agnate, cognate, heir, intestate, full blood, half blood, uterine blood, custom, usage and related.
Section 2 - Application of Act
Section 2(1). This Act applies -
- to any person, who is a Hindu by religion in any of its forms or developments, including a Virashaiva, a Lingayat or a follower of the Brahmo, Prarthana or Arya Samaj;
- to any person who is Buddhist, Jaina or Sikh by religion; and
- to any other person who is not a Muslim, Christian, Parsi or Jew by religion, unless it is proved that any such person would not have been governed by Hindu law or by any custom or usage as part of that law in respect of the matters dealt with in the Act if the Act had not been passed.
Explanation. The section also treats the following as Hindus, Buddhists, Jainas or Sikhs by religion, as the case may be:
- any child, legitimate or illegitimate, both of whose parents are Hindus, Buddhists, Jainas or Sikhs by religion;
- any child, legitimate or illegitimate, one of whose parents is a Hindu, Buddhist, Jaina or Sikh by religion and who is brought up as a member of the tribe, community, group or family to which that parent belongs or belonged; and
- any person who is a convert or reconvert to the Hindu, Buddhist, Jaina or Sikh religion.
Section 2(2). Despite sub-section (1), the Act does not apply to members of any Scheduled Tribe within the meaning of Article 366(25) of the Constitution unless the Central Government, by notification in the Official Gazette, otherwise directs.
Section 2(3). The expression "Hindu" in the Act is to be construed as including a person who, though not Hindu by religion, is a person to whom the Act applies by virtue of Section 2.
Meaning and effect of Section 2
The section uses an extended statutory meaning of "Hindu" for the purposes of the Act. Accordingly, application of the Act is not confined only to a person who describes his or her religion as Hindu. The statutory categories and conditions in Section 2 must be examined.
The Scheduled Tribe provision in Section 2(2) is a statutory exclusion subject to the Central Government's power to issue an Official Gazette notification directing otherwise.
Section 3 - Definitions and Interpretation
Section 3(1) states that the following definitions apply unless the context otherwise requires.
- Agnate: one person is an agnate of another if the two are related by blood or adoption wholly through males.
- Aliyasantana law: the system of law applicable to persons who, if the Hindu Succession Act had not been passed, would have been governed by the Madras Aliyasantana Act, 1949 or customary aliyasantana law in respect of matters for which the Act makes provision.
- Cognate: one person is a cognate of another if the two are related by blood or adoption, but not wholly through males.
- Custom and usage: a rule continuously and uniformly observed for a long time so as to obtain the force of law among Hindus in a local area, tribe, community, group or family. The rule must be certain, not unreasonable or opposed to public policy; a family rule must also not have been discontinued by that family.
- Full blood: two persons are related by full blood when they descend from a common ancestor by the same wife.
- Half blood: two persons are related by half blood when they descend from a common ancestor but by different wives.
- Uterine blood: two persons are related by uterine blood when they descend from a common ancestress but by different husbands. For this clause, "ancestor" includes the father and "ancestress" includes the mother.
- Heir: any person, male or female, entitled to succeed to the property of an intestate under the Act.
- Intestate: a person is deemed to die intestate in respect of property for which he or she has not made a testamentary disposition capable of taking effect.
- Marumakkattayam law: the system of law described in Section 3(1)(h), including specified historical enactments and certain systems of inheritance in which descent is traced through the female line; it does not include aliyasantana law.
- Nambudri law: the system of law described in Section 3(1)(i), referring to the historical enactments specified in that clause in respect of matters for which the Hindu Succession Act makes provision.
- Related: related by legitimate kinship, subject to the proviso in Section 3(1)(j) concerning illegitimate children, their mother, one another and their legitimate descendants.
Why these definitions matter
The definitions determine how relationships are classified when the Act applies. In particular, the distinction between an agnate and a cognate depends on whether the chain of relationship is wholly through males, while "intestate" identifies property for which there is no testamentary disposition capable of taking effect.
Official text and legal reference
The Hindu Succession Act, 1956 is Act 30 of 1956. For the current official bare Act and amendment notes, refer to India Code - Hindu Succession Act, 1956.