In Brief
Raja Harinder Singh, former ruler of Faridkot State, died in 1989 leaving daughters but also an alleged Will dated 1982 establishing a Trust. The Supreme Court upheld lower courts' findings that this Will was forged and the Trust invalid. The Court held that the 1948 Faridkot Estate Act (imposing male succession) had no constitutional validity and that Primogeniture (male-only succession) ceased when the State merged with India in 1948. The Court applied the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, under which the deceased's daughters succeed to his private properties in equal shares as Class I heirs, not as beneficiaries of the invalid Trust or under archaic royal succession rules.
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