PANJIM, May 17 -- The Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court has ruled that inheritance rights vest in legal heirs immediately upon the death of an estate holder, irrespective of whether inventory proceedings have commenced.

While upholding the constitutional validity of the Goa Succession, Special Notaries and Inventory Proceedings (Amendment) Acts of 2022 and 2023, the Court clarified that inventory proceedings are intended only to identify and demarcate the specific shares of heirs and are not a condition precedent for the transfer of ownership.

The ruling came in the context of challenges to the 2023 amendment, which retrospectively altered the order of succession by giving priority to a surviving spouse over ascendants and siblings. Th...