9.1 Meaning of Inheritance

Inheritance is the transmission of a deceased person's property to the survivors entitled by law — the devolution of the estate on death. Two channels: Intestate succession — no valid will: the statutory heirs take, in the classes and shares the law fixes (the Code 2074's Inheritance chapter); Testamentary succession — by will: the Code's will (ichchha-patra) provisions — the Nepali will's statutory recognition, its formalities (the written document, the testator's signature, the witnesses), and — critically — the compulsory-heir protections limiting testamentary freedom (the near heirs' reserved shares: the testator cannot disinherit the protected class beyond the statute's cap). Inheritance vs. partition (the distinction that organizes Units 8–9): inheritance is the dead person's estate devolving; partition is the living family's common property dividing. The two interact: on a coparcener's death, the birth-share (Unit 8) crystallizes into the estate and passes by inheritance — and the inherited property, held by several heirs, re-enters partition law when the co-heirs divide it. The constitutional frame: Articles 18(5) and 38(1)/(6) — equal inheritance regardless of sex or marital status (the Meera Dhungana line's constitutional settlement; Unit 1).