escheat

Escheat is the reversion of property to the sovereign when the owner dies intestate leaving no one qualified to inherit. Under Article 296 of the Constitution, property in India that would have accrued to the Crown or a Ruler by escheat or lapse, or as bona vacantia for want of a rightful owner, vests in the State if situated there, and otherwise in the Union.

For Hindus, s.29 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 provides that where an intestate leaves no heir qualified to succeed, the property devolves on the Government, which takes it subject to all the obligations and liabilities to which an heir would have been subject. The State takes by escheat, not as an heir, and the property must be shown to be without any heir.

Example

The Hindu intestate left no heir in any class, so the land passed to the State by escheat under s.29 of the Hindu Succession Act.

In Indian law

• Article 296, Constitution of India
• Section 29, Hindu Succession Act, 1956

See also

eminent domain · distant kindred

Read more in the study notes

• Sources of public revenue: tax and non-tax revenue of the Central Government (Economic Theory and Public Finance)
• Succession to a Hindu male dying intestate (Family Law I - Hindu Law)