NLC Worker’s Niece And Nephew Can’t Recast His Death Benefits As Ancestral After Earlier Ruling, Madras HC Holds

T.A. Balaji died intestate and unmarried.

The suit sought declarations concerning the shares of his relatives in benefits payable on his death.

In an earlier interlocutory proceeding, the court held that the relatives falling within the relevant earlier entries of Class II of the Schedule to the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, were entitled to the estate to the exclusion of the children of a predeceased sister; the Division Bench affirmed that decision in O.S.A. No. 266 of 2020.

The plaintiffs later sought to amend the plaint to allege that Balaji’s assets had been given to him by his grandparents and were ancestral. The learned Master dismissed the amendment application, but a Single Judge allowed it on appeal. The present appeal challenged that order.

Section 9 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, provides that heirs in an earlier entry of Class II are preferred to heirs in a later entry.

The Court applied the principle of res judicata to hold that a finding in an interlocutory proceeding in the same suit, once affirmed on appeal and final between the parties, could not be reopened through a later amendment.

It also applied the principle that an amendment cannot be used to alter the character of the suit or circumvent a binding determination.

The Court held that the earlier decision had conclusively determined the relevant heirs’ entitlement under Section 9, and that determination had been affirmed by the Division Bench.

The suit concerned movable benefits payable on Balaji’s death, including employment-related death benefits, which the Court treated as his self-acquired assets.

Recasting those assets as ancestral through amendment would therefore both change the character of the suit and seek to avoid the final earlier finding.

The Court further held that sympathy for the excluded category of heirs could not justify departing from the statutory rule.

The Court set aside the Single Judge’s order allowing the amendment, and allowed the Original Side Appeal. No costs were ordered, and the connected miscellaneous petition was closed.