14.2 In Raghubar Singh (supra), it was held that a widow’s right to maintenance arises under Shastric Hindu law and is not merely a statutory imprimatur under the Act, 1937. Consequently, instruments recognising this pre-existing right attract Section 14(1), which confers absolute ownership, rather than restricting her estate under Section 14(2). The following is the gist of the observations:

i.               A Hindu widow’s right to maintenance is a pre-existing right that arises from the spiritual, social, and temporal relationship of marriage under Shastric Hindu law. Statutes such as the Act, 1937, or the Act, 1956 did not create this right. They merely provided statutory recognition to rights that already existed.

ii.             The term “possessed by” in Section 14(1) of the Act, 1956, has the widest possible amplitude. It encompasses ownership of property even without actual or physical possession, provided possession is held under some vestige of a claim, right, or title.

iii.     Where a document, decree, or instrument merely declares, recognises, or confirms a Hindu female’s pre-existing right to maintenance, her limited interest automatically becomes an absolute right under Section 14(1) of the Act, 1956. Any restrictions contained in such a document must be disregarded.

iv.                   Section 14(2) of the Act, 1956, operates as a proviso and applies only to instruments, decrees, awards, or gifts that create an independent or entirely new title in favour of the female for the first time. It does not apply where the instrument merely endorses or recognises a preexisting righ