Your Advocate
This week Your Advocate is Barrister Tanjib-ul Alam Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh. He is the head of the chamber of a renowned law firm, namely, 'Tanjib-ul Alam and Associates ',which has expertise mainly in commercial law, corporate law, admiralty, employment and labor law, land law, banking law, constitutional law, telecom law, energy law, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Intellectual Property Rights and in conducting litigations before courts of different hierarchies.
Query
A family of 6 brothers and 3 Sisters from the same parents. The Parents are deceased. All the brothers and sisters are married. The oldest brother was married but never had any kids. His wife died before him. He never remarried. The oldest sister also died before him. She had kids and they are all married. The oldest brother upon his death some 15 years back had left behind a substantial amount of properties in form of land and savings but no heir whatsoever.
The youngest brother out of 6 was given the duty to look after the properties left behind by the oldest one. The residential house that the remaining brothers live in was bought in the name of their father.
Other than that the rest of the properties are in the name of the deceased brother. Now the remaining brothers have sold a land after the death of the older brother and in return they got hold of a huge amount of money. Instead of distributing the money evenly among the brothers and sisters of the deceased, the money was given only to the brothers and their family. The remaining 2 sisters were not included in the distribution. So the question is what rights the sisters have in the given situation according to the law of inheritance of Bangladesh? Is there any legal remedy they can claim to get their share of money or property? If yes, how should the distribution take place?
Anonymous
Response
Thank you for your query. It appears that your prime concern is whether sisters and their children will be able to claim from the property of the eldest brother who died without any son or daughter.
According to Muslim sharia law, a husband is entitled to one fourth property of his wife. Therefore, upon the death of the wife of the eldest brother, he is entitled to one fourth of the properties of his deceased wife. However, you have not indicated if she left any property behind.
At the time of the demise of the eldest brother, he lef behind five brothers and two sisters. Since his eldest sister died before him, her successors are not entitled to any property of their maternal uncle. However, the remaining sisters and brothers are entitled to the deceased eldest brother. You have not indicated whether father of the family died before the death of the eldest brother. For the limited purpose of determining proportionate distribution of the property of the eldest brothers, it is assumed that the father of the family died before the eldest brother's death.
Considering the above, the property of the eldest brother will be divided into fourteen parts. Each brother shall be entitled to two portion and each sister shall be entitled to one portion.
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