Repealed or not in force · As amended up to 2026-08
I. Whereas it is expedient to extend the amendments, in the English Law of Inheritance contained in the Statute 3d and 4[th] William IV. Chapter CVI. to the Territories of the East India Company in cases which, but for the passing of this Act, would be governed by the English Law of Inheritance as it existed previously to the passing of the aforesaid Statute:
Meaning of words in the Act .- It is hereby enacted, that the words and expressions hereinafter mentioned, which in their ordinary signification have a more confined or a different meaning, shall in this Act, except where the nature of the provision or the context of the Act shall exclude such construction , be interpreted as follows; (that is to say,) the word "Land" shall extend to Messuages, and all other Hereditaments, whether corporeal or incorporeal, and whether Freehold or of any other Tenure, and to Money to be laid out in the purchase of Land, and to Chattels and other personal property transmissible to Heirs, and also to any share of the same Hereditaments and Properties or any of them, and to any Estate of Inheritance or Estate for any Life or Lives, or other Estate transmissible to Heirs, and to any Possibility, Right, or Title of Entry or Action, and any other Interest capable of being inherited, and whether the same Estate, Possibilities, Rights, Titles, and Interests, or any of them , shall be in Possession, reversion, remainder, or contingency ; and the words " the Purchaser" shall mean the person who last acquired the Land otherwise than by descent, or than by any escheat, partition, or enclosure, by the effect of which the Land shall have become part of or descendible in the same manner as other Land acquired by descent; and the word "descent" shall mean the title to inherit Land by reason of consanguinity, as well where the Heir shall be an Ancestor or Collateral relation, as where he shall be a child or other issue; and the expression "descendants" of any ancestor shall extend to all persons who must trace their descent through such Ancestor ; and the expression "the person last entitled to Land" shall extend to the last person who had a right thereto, whether he did or did not obtain the possession or the receipt of the Rents and Profits thereof; and the word "assurance" shall mean any Deed or Instrument other than a Will by which any Land shall be conveyed or transferred at Law or in Equity ; and every word importing the singular number only, shall extend and be applied to several persons or things as well as one person or thing, and every word importing the masculine gender only, shall extend and be applied to a female as well as a male.
IV. Where Heirs take by Purchase under Limitations to the Heirs of their Ancestors, the Land shall descend as if the Ancestor had been the Purchaser .- And it is hereby further enacted, that when any person shall have acquired any Land by Purchase under a limitation to the Heirs or to the Heirs of the body of any of his Ancestors, contained in an assurance executed after the said First day of July one thousand eight hundred and forty, or under a limitation to the Heir or to the Heirs of the body of any of his Ancestors, or under any limitation having the same effect, contained in a Will of any Testator who shall depart this life after the said First day of July one thousand eight hundred and forty, then and in any of such cases such Land shall descend, and the descent thereof shall be traced as if the Ancestor named in such limitation had been the Purchaser of such Land.
V. Brothers, &c. shall trace descent through their Parent .- And it is hereby further enacted, that no brother or sister shall be considered to inherit immediately from his or her brother or sister, but every descent from a brother or sister shall be traced through the Parent.
VI. Lineal Ancestor may be Heir in preference to Collateral Persons claiming through him .- And it is hereby further enacted, that every lineal Ancestor shall be capable of being Heir to any of his issue, and in every case where there shall be no issue of the purchaser, his nearest lineal Ancestor shall be his Heir in preference to any person who would have been entitled to inherit, either by tracing his descent through such lineal Ancestor, or in consequence of there being no descendant of such lineal Ancestor, so that the father shall be preferred to a brother or sister, and a more remote lineal Ancestor to any of his issue, other than a nearer lineal Ancestor or his issue.
X. After the death of a person attainted, his descendants may inherit.- And it is hereby further enacted, that when the person from whom the descent of any Land is to be traced shall have had any relation, who, having been attainted, shall have died before such descent shall have taken place, then such attainder shall not prevent any person from inheriting such Land who would have been capable of inheriting the same by tracing his descent through such relation if he had not been attainted, unless such Land shall have escheated in consequence of such attainder before the First day of July one thousand eight hundred and forty.
XI. Act not to extend to any descent before Ist July 1840.- And it is hereby further enacted, that this Act shall not extend to any descent which shall take place on the death of any person who shall die before the said First day of July one thousand eight hundred and forty.
XIII. And it is hereby provided, that this Act shall not be construed to affect inheritances of Land, which are not subject to the English Law of Inheritances, or to extend or alter the jurisdiction of any of Her Majesty's Courts of Justice
Source: India Code