In a significant judgement, the Supreme Court has ruled that a father can gift a reasonable portion of his ancestral immovable property to daughters at the time of their marriage or even long after their marriage.The ruling was given by a bench comprising Justice R.C. Lahoti and Justice Ashok Bhan while settling a 15-year-old dispute between a father and his daughters in Tamil Nadu in favour of the latter by setting aside a trial court order which was upheld by the Madras High Court.The bench said ‘‘a father can make a gift of ancestral immovable property within reasonable limits, keeping in view the total extent of the property held by the family in favour of his daughter at the time of marriage or even long after.’’
