DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 163
103. Cognates who are heirs. —In the absence of any preferential heir and agnates, cognates of the deceased related to the deceased within five degrees, shall be entitled to succeed in accordance with the rules set out in this Part.
(116)
Part I, sec. 8, page 7.
Part II,
104. Order of succession amongst agnates and cog- sec. 9, nates. —The order of succession among agnates or cognates, pages 7 & 8. as the case may be, shall be determined in accordance with the rules of preference laid down hereunder:—
Rule 1. —Of two heirs, the one who has fewer or no degrees of ascent is preferred.
Rule 2. —Where the number of degrees of ascent is the same or none, that heir is preferred who has fewer or no degrees of ascent.
Rule 3. —Where the number of degrees of descent is also the same or none, the heir who is in the male line is preferred to the heir who is in the female line at the first point (counting from the intestate to the heir) where the lines of the two heirs can be so distinguished.
Rule 4. —Where the two lines cannot be so distinguished, the heir who is a male is preferred to the heir who is a female.
Rule 5. —Where neither heir is entitled to be preferred to the other under the foregoing rules, they take together.
Illustrations
In the following illustrations, the letters F and M stand for the father and mother respectively in that portion of the line which ascends from the intestate to the
common ancestor, and the letters S and D for the son and daughter respectively in that portion of the line which descend from the common ancestor to the heir.
Thus MFSS stands for the intestate’s mother’s father’s son’s son (mother’s brother’s son) and FDS stands for the intestate’s father’s daughter’s son (sister’s son).
(i) The competing heirs are (1) SDSS (son’s daughter’s son’s son and (2) FDDS
(sister’s daughter’s son). No. (1) who has no degree of ascent is preferred to No.
(2) who has one degree of ascent.
(ii) The competing heirs are (1) FDDD (sister’s daughter’s daughter) and (2) MFSSD (maternal uncle’s son’s daughter). The former who has only one degree of
ascent is preferred to the latter who has two such degrees.
(iii) The competing heirs are (1) FDSS (sister’s son’s son) and MFSSD (material uncle’s son’s daughter). The former who has only one degree of ascent is preferred
to the latter who has two such degrees.
(iv) The competing heirs are (1) MFDSS (mother’s sister’s son’s son) and (2) MFFDS (mother’s father’s sister’s son). The former who has two degrees of ascent
is preferred to the latter who has three such degrees.
(v) The competing heirs are (I) MFM (mother’s father’s mother) and (2) FFFDSS father’s father’s sister’s son’s son). The number of degrees of ascent in both cases is the same, viz., three, but the former has no degree of descent while the latter
has three such degrees. The former (1) is therefore preferred.