Madras HC rejects woman's claim, upholds stepmother's property sale as legal

The Madras High Court has ruled that a specific 2.5-acre property was not ancestral but self-acquired. This determination was made in a case where a woman claimed the land was ancestral after her stepmother sold it. The court found that, under Hindu law, the male owner and his mother were legally entitled to gift the property to the man's second wife. That second wife was therefore within her rights to subsequently sell the land. The court consequently rejected the woman's plea challenging the sale.