ERAMMA vs VERRUPANNA & ORS.

The Supreme Court held that Section 8 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, is not retrospective, meaning it does not apply to successions that opened before the Act came into force. The Court clarified that the appellant, being a stepmother, had no title to the properties at the time of her husband's death, as the Hindu Women’s Right to Property Act, 1937, was not in force. Consequently, her possession did not confer ownership under Section 14(1), as she was merely a trespasser without any legal right to the property.