New Delhi, July 23 -- If you think you have a birthright in your grandfather's property, you may be in for a surprise.

In a recent ruling, the Karnataka High Court held that property inherited by a father from his own father's self-acquired assets does not automatically become ancestral property in the hands of grandchildren.

In Smt. Usha N. Swamy v. Sri M. Venkataswamy & Ors., the court held that the property in dispute was self-acquired property and not ancestral property.

The court dismissed a woman's claim for an equal share in properties that originally belonged to her grandfather, holding that since the assets were the grandfather's self-acquired properties, she could not claim a right in them by birth.

Usha N. Swamy had filed a...