Full blood relationship
Under the Hindu Succession Act, two people descended from the same father and the same mother — a status that lets them inherit together, unlike a uterine relationship, which the Act excludes.
In plain language
Not every "brother" or "sister" in Hindu succession law means the same thing. The workbook sorts blood relationships into three kinds, and full blood is the simplest of the three.
Two people are of full blood when they come from one common ancestor and one common ancestress — in everyday terms, the same father and the same mother. This is the ordinary meaning most people already have in mind when they say "brother" or "sister."
How it works
The workbook gives full blood one more job beyond the plain definition. Under the Hindu Succession Act, an adopted child is treated, for every purpose, as if related by full blood — not as some lesser or partial relation. That single line does most of the practical work this term carries in the exam.
Full blood also matters by contrast. The Act names three categories of blood relationship: full blood, half blood, and uterine blood. Of these, only uterine blood is excluded from the Schedule's references to "brother" or "sister" in Class I and Class II. Full blood relatives are never excluded on this ground — they are the relationship the Act is built around.
The workbook does not attach a separate share or priority rule to "full blood" as such; the Act's Class I and Class II lists and Section 10/11 distribution rules apply the same way whether a sibling is of full or half blood.
A worked example
Illustrative figures. Mr Rane dies intestate, a Hindu, with no Class I heirs surviving. He leaves three brothers: Suresh, born of the same father and mother as him — full blood; Prakash, born of the same father but a different mother — half blood; and Ajay, born of the same mother but a different father — uterine blood.
Under the Schedule's Class II, entry II, "brother" and "sister" qualify without regard to full or half blood. So Suresh and Prakash both inherit, sharing the estate equally under Section 11. Ajay does not inherit at all — the Act's own note excludes a brother "by uterine blood" from Class I and Class II references, and this is the one blood-relationship line that actually costs an heir their share.
If Mr Rane's estate is worth Rs 60,00,000 and no closer Class II entry survives, Suresh and Prakash take Rs 30,00,000 each; Ajay takes nothing.
Why NISM asks about it
Chapter 14 (Basics of Estate Planning), section 14.4.2, defines full blood, half blood and uterine blood together as part of the Hindu Succession Act framework, immediately after listing the Class I and Class II heirs. Expect a question that names two or three siblings of different blood relationships and asks which of them inherit.
Common exam traps
- Full blood is not a separate, higher-priority category. Full and half blood siblings inherit together in the same Class II entry and share equally — the Act does not rank one above the other.
- The exclusion line is drawn at uterine blood, not at half blood. A half-blood sibling (same father, different mother) inherits normally; only a uterine sibling (same mother, different father) is shut out.
- An adopted child counts as full blood, not as a separate or diluted category of relation.
Where this is taught
Free preparation for NISM Series X-BRelated terms
- Class I heirsThe primary heirs of a Hindu male who dies without a will, listed in the Schedule to the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 — they inherit together and to the exclusion of all other heirs.
- Class II heirsThe second tier of heirs under the Hindu Succession Act, inherited from only when no Class I heir survives — arranged in nine entries, with an earlier entry excluding a later one.
- Half-blood relationshipUnder the Hindu Succession Act, two people who share one common ancestor but were born of different wives — commonly, the same father but different mothers — and still inherit normally.
- Uterine blood relationshipTwo people with the same mother but different fathers — a relationship the Hindu Succession Act's Schedule excludes from Class I and Class II inheritance, while Muslim law counts uterine siblings among its sharers.