SUCCESSION OF DIGITAL PROPERTY IN INDIA
AUTHOR – JOPHEL SIMON, SCHOOL OF LAW (CHRIST UNIVERSITY) BANGALORE
BEST CITATION – JOPHEL SIMON, SUCCESSION OF DIGITAL PROPERTY IN INDIA, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 6 (3) OF 2026, PG. 105-120, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344.
ABSTRACT –
The digitisation of modern life has created a new category of wealth—digital property—including cryptocurrencies, cloud-based accounts, social media profiles, and digital intellectual property[1]. These assets hold both financial and sentimental value, yet India’s succession framework, rooted in the Indian Succession Act, 1925, and the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, remains limited to tangible property[2]. This legislative silence leaves heirs dependent on the restrictive Terms of Service of technology companies, often resulting in inaccessible assets, prolonged disputes, and irreversible financial loss[3]. Challenges such as encryption, cross-border jurisdiction, and lack of public awareness further compound the problem, while risks of identity theft and asset dissipation persist.
This study critically examines the inadequacy of Indian succession law in governing digital property, drawing on international models such as the U.S. Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA), Germany’s Facebook inheritance ruling, and the EU’s MiCA framework for crypto-assets[4]. Using doctrinal and comparative methods, it argues that reform is urgent and feasible. The paper recommends statutory recognition of digital assets, the introduction of digital wills and executors, integration of technological tools like blockchain-based wills and digital vaults, and greater public awareness initiatives. Modernising inheritance law to accommodate digital assets is essential to safeguard economic value, uphold family rights, and ensure dignity and posthumous autonomy in the digital age. Recent developments—including the omission of Section 213 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 via the Repealing and Amending Act, 2025 (removing mandatory probate requirements)[5], the operationalisation of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 through the DPDP Rules, 2025 (introducing the Right to Nominate for posthumous data rights)[6], and the Madras High Court’s 2025 recognition of cryptocurrency as property[7] provide partial tools for digital estate management. Yet a unified statutory framework recognising digital assets as inheritable property, overriding restrictive platform Terms of Service, and enabling digital wills and executors remains absent. This paper proposes blockchain-enabled reforms to bridge this gap, ensuring constitutional safeguards under Articles 14, 21, and 300A[8].
Keywords: Digital inheritance, digital assets, Indian succession law, cryptocurrency, estate planning, comparative law.
[1] UNIDROIT, Principles on Digital Assets and Private Law pmbl. (2022) (defining digital assets as “qualifying data assets” subject to proprietary rights).
[2] Indian Succession Act, No. 39 of 1925, India Code (Lexis) (last visited Mar. 6, 2026); Hindu Succession Act, No. 30 of 1956, § 6, India Code (Lexis) (last visited Mar. 6, 2026) (both applying primarily to coparcenary and tangible estates).
[3] Chainalysis, 2021 Crypto Crime Report 45 (2021) (estimating $3.7 billion in global crypto losses from inaccessible private keys).
[4] Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act § 6 (Unif. L. Comm’n 2015); Bundesgerichtshof [BGH] [Federal Court of Justice], July 12, 2018, III ZR 183/17 (Ger.) (Facebook case); Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 May 2023 on Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA), 2023 O.J. (L 150) 40, art. 3.
[5] The Repealing and Amending Act, No. 37 of 2025, sch. I (omitting Indian Succession Act § 213), India Code (Lexis) (last visited Mar. 6, 2026)
[6] Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 (notified Nov. 14, 2025), Gazette of India, pt. II, § 3(i), r. 13 (Right to Nominate), available at Min. Elecs. & Info. Tech., Gov’t of India (last visited Mar. 6, 2026).
[7] Rhutikumari v. Zanmai Labs Pvt. Ltd., O.A. No. 194 of 2025, at 45 (Madras High Ct. Oct. 2025) (India) (affirming cryptocurrency as “trust property” under art. 300A).
[8] India Const. arts. 14 (equality), 21 (life and personal liberty), 300A (deprivation of property); see also Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India, (2017) 10 S.C.C. 1, ¶ 124 (India) (extending art. 21 to privacy).