Digital Assets and Inheritance: The Next Frontier in Indian Succession Law

Abstract

The rapid expansion of India’s digital economy has transformed property ownership, giving rise to a new class of assets digital assets such as cryptocurrencies, NFTs, domain names, social media accounts, and cloud storage content. These assets hold both monetary and sentimental value, yet their inheritance remains legally ambiguous. Current Indian succession laws, including the Indian Succession Act, 1925 and the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, fail to explicitly recognize digital property, leaving heirs without clear rights of access or transfer.

This paper examines the conceptual foundations of digital assets, the lacunae in India’s legal framework, and the growing conflict between privacy, ownership, and posthumous control. Through comparative analysis of jurisdictions like the United States, European Union, Singapore, and the United Kingdom, it explores how statutory reforms and fiduciary access models can guide India’s legislative evolution. The research concludes that incorporating digital assets within Indian succession law through statutory recognition, fiduciary protocols, and privacy safeguards is imperative to ensure equitable and technologically relevant inheritance practices in the digital age.

Introduction

The rapid digitization of economic and social life has brought forth a new category of property known as digital assets, encompassing cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), domain names, digital wallets, social media accounts, and cloud storage contents. These assets possess both economic and sentimental value, often representing substantial investments, intellectual creations, or personal records. As individuals amass digital wealth across virtual platforms, questions surrounding the ownership, transfer, and legal status of these assets after death have begun to challenge traditional understandings of succession law.

In India’s evolving digital economy, the relevance of digital inheritance has expanded exponentially. A large segment of the population now maintains digital property ranging from financial instruments stored in blockchain-based systems to personal data contained in email or social media accounts. Yet, despite this technological advancement, the country’s legal architecture, particularly in the domain of succession, remains largely rooted in the principles of tangible property and conventional inheritance norms. The absence of a defined statutory or judicial framework for digital succession exposes significant ambiguities concerning the transfer, management, and access to digital estates of deceased individuals.

The central research problem addressed in this paper concerns the lacuna in Indian succession laws regarding the inheritance and administration of digital assets. Existing statutes such as the Indian Succession Act, 1925 and the Information Technology Act, 2000 fail to provide express recognition or procedural clarity on how digital properties should devolve upon heirs. Furthermore, service-provider agreements, privacy policies, and foreign jurisdictional controls often complicate the transmission of such assets. This legal vacuum raises critical questions about ownership rights, fiduciary access, privacy after death, and the enforceability of digital wills.

Primary Objectives of This Research

• To examine the conceptual and legal status of digital assets within the current Indian legal system.
• To evaluate the adequacy of existing succession frameworks in addressing posthumous transfer of digital property.
• To conduct a comparative analysis of select jurisdictions such as the United States, European Union, and Singapore that have developed specific frameworks or judicial precedents on digital inheritance.
• To propose legal and policy recommendations for integrating digital assets into India’s statutory succession regime.

Research Methodology

The study adopts a doctrinal research methodology, supported by a comparative analysis of international legal developments. It relies on examination of statutory texts, judicial decisions, contractual terms of digital service providers, and secondary scholarship on property and technology law to discern normative trends and legislative possibilities.

Structure of the Paper

The paper is structured as follows:

1. Part I introduces the concept of digital property and sets the foundation of digital inheritance.
2. Part II analyses existing Indian succession laws and identifies gaps concerning digital assets.
3. Part III undertakes a comparative study of foreign legal models regulating digital legacies.
4. Part IV discusses policy and jurisprudential challenges while proposing a conceptual framework for statutory reform.

The conclusion synthesizes the findings and underscores the necessity of a coherent digital inheritance regime to ensure legal certainty in India’s digital future.

Conceptual Understanding of Digital Assets

Digital assets comprise any item created, stored, or managed digitally that holds value, ownership rights, or usage rights. They include cryptocurrencies (like Bitcoin, Ethereum), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), digital wallets, social media accounts, email accounts, domain names, and cloud storage files. Some jurisdictions further distinguish assets purely generated in distributed ledgers from tokenized representations of real-world property. In contemporary usage, digital assets broadly encompass digital payment tokens, intellectual property, digital content, and virtual property rights.

Tangible vs. Intangible and Monetary vs. Sentimental Digital Assets

Ownership vs. Licensing in the Digital Context

In the digital realm, assets may be “owned” in the sense that exclusive rights exist over their use, management, and transfer, as is typical for cryptocurrencies and NFTs. However, many digital assets—especially streaming service accounts, downloaded media, email services, or software—are governed by licensing agreements instead, which generally confer only limited non-transferable usage rights upon users, rather than ownership. Indian copyright law, for instance, grants exclusive rights to creators, and NFTs are typically governed by non-exclusive, revocable licenses subject to platform and contractual terms.

The Concept of “Digital Estate” in Modern Legal Parlance

The term “digital estate” refers to the aggregate of an individual’s digital assets and rights that may be subject to death-time administration, transfer, or management. Modern legal discourse in India recognizes the complexity and need for statutory recognition of digital estates, especially as current inheritance laws do not adequately account for asset classification, transfer mechanisms, or access protocols posthumously. Scholars recommend amendments to succession statutes to include digital estates, nominate digital executors, and regulate access and transfer protocols for digital assets, advocating for a holistic framework.

Legal Framework Governing Succession in India

India’s succession law is a patchwork of statutes and doctrines, primarily rooted in the Indian Succession Act, 1925 (ISA), Hindu Succession Act, 1956 (HSA), and Muslim personal law principles. The ISA governs intestate and testamentary succession for Christians, Parsis, and those not covered by personal law, while HSA applies to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, and Buddhists, and Muslim law is largely uncodified but follows classical schools (Hanafi, Shia, etc.).​

Both the ISA and HSA recognize inheritance of movable and immovable property, with “property” broadly defined in Section 2(h) of ISA. However, neither statute explicitly mentions digital assets such as cloud data, cryptocurrency, domain names, or social media accounts—within the scope of “property”. This omission results in a statutory vacuum for intangible digital assets, leaving their transfer, access, and management subject to platform terms of service and emergent, uncertain jurisprudence.

The Information Technology Act, 2000 addresses unauthorized access and privacy violations but does not grant heirs any statutory right to inherit or access digital assets after death. Accordingly, executors and heirs are often left without legal recourse to retrieve digital property, unless the testator has explicitly referenced these assets in a will and platform policies are cooperative. While intellectual property (patents/copyrights) can be inherited under the ISA, usage rights (licenses for digital content or streaming services) are usually non-transferable and expire with the testator.

Recent commentary and legal scholarship argue for statutory reform and propose amending succession acts to explicitly recognize digital assets—suggesting digital estate planning frameworks, digital wills, and nomination systems to facilitate lawful transfer. However, until such reforms are enacted, Indian succession law remains ill-equipped to address the challenges brought by rapid digitalization.

Global Approaches to Digital Inheritance

United States: RUFADAA

• The United States pioneered legal solutions with the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA, 2015), adopted in most states.
• RUFADAA grants court-appointed fiduciaries (executors, trustees) access to digital assets if the decedent provided express consent (through a will or online tool).
• It distinguishes between the contents of communications and other digital records, balancing privacy with fiduciary access.
• Service providers must comply with fiduciary requests regardless of terms-of-service agreements.

European Union: GDPR and Posthumous Data Rights

• EU regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) emphasize personal data rights and privacy, extending even after death in some cases.
• Member states have varied frameworks; some (France, Germany) permit heirs to exercise data rights, while others prioritize strict privacy.
• The GDPR compels service providers to address requests from estate representatives, though national law determines enforceability.

Singapore, UK, Australia: Legislative Moves and Case Law

Singapore

• Implemented nominee systems for bank accounts and certain digital assets, though not fully codified for all digital property.
• Court rulings recognize fiduciary rights to access financial digital assets.

United Kingdom

• Succession law has yet to fully address digital assets.
• Probate disputes over encrypted cryptocurrency have led to reform proposals by the Law Commission.

Australia

• Courts and legislatures are evaluating whether passwords, tokens, and data should be inheritable.
• Practice guidelines encourage digital estate inventories and executor nominations.

Lessons for India

• Statutorily defining digital assets as a category of property within succession law.
• Mandating platform cooperation and fiduciary access based on explicit consent.
• Introducing digital estate planning frameworks, digital executors, and nomination clauses.
• Balancing privacy and inheritance rights using a RUFADAA-style tiered access model.

Such lessons will be fundamental for bridging India’s statutory gap and enabling lawful, predictable digital inheritance in the future.

Challenges In Digital Succession

Access And Privacy Conflicts

One of the foremost obstacles in digital succession arises from the interplay between user agreements, technological protection, and privacy. Major digital platforms such as Google, Facebook, and Apple enforce stringent terms-of-service agreements, often designed to prioritize user privacy and restrict posthumous access. Most digital accounts are password-protected, sometimes bolstered by encryption, making unauthorized access not only technically challenging but legally questionable under statutes like the Information Technology Act, 2000.

Even rightful heirs and executors may face legal ambiguity or risk violating data protection laws if they attempt to retrieve digital property without explicit consent, particularly where service agreements specify account closure or data deletion.

Jurisdictional Issues

Digital assets are frequently stored on servers located in multiple jurisdictions, sometimes governed by laws outside India. This raises questions about which legal system applies to inheritance disputes, data access requests, or enforcement of wills dealing with online content.

• Heirs may face bureaucratic hurdles, such as providing translated succession certificates or meeting foreign requirements that differ from India’s inheritance processes.
• These differences create costly and time-consuming delays.
• Sometimes, platform providers are unable or unwilling to cooperate due to conflicting national privacy standards.

Lack Of Testamentary Clarity

India’s succession laws do not mandate procedures or forms for including digital assets within testamentary documents. Many individuals remain unaware of how to catalogue and transfer digital property, resulting in digital wealth and sentimental content becoming inaccessible or irretrievably lost after death.

• Few testators create digital inventories or include specific instructions for digital accounts and tokens in their wills.
• Even well-intentioned digital estate plans can be thwarted by platforms that refuse to recognize surrogate authority.

Platform Policies: Google, Facebook, Apple

Leading global platforms have devised unique and sometimes ambiguous legacy solutions.

These varying approaches, largely decided by companies without reference to national law, create inconsistency and uncertainty for Indian testators and heirs.

Ethical Dilemmas: Autonomy, Privacy, Emotional Value

Digital succession raises profound ethical questions concerning the balance between the deceased’s autonomy and the emotional interests of surviving family. The sentimental value attached to messages, photos, and online identities often conflicts with privacy rights that persist after death.

• No clear legal test exists for reconciling wishes contained in a will with privacy expectations under user agreements.
• Heirs may wish to preserve digital legacies for emotional reasons, yet breach ethical or statutory boundaries in doing so.

Judicial And Policy Developments In India

Judicial Approach

Recent years have seen growing legal and scholarly engagement with digital inheritance in India. While no statute yet directly addresses digital succession, courts, governmental committees, and emerging policy initiatives have begun to grapple with the complexities of digital assets, their transmission, and posthumous management.

Indian courts have thus far hesitated to recognize distinct rights in digital legacies. In cases such as Deepa Jayakumar v. A.L. Vijay (2020), the Madras High Court declined to grant posthumous privacy rights, refusing to empower families to control digital reputations after death—highlighting ambiguity about judicial authority over digital legacies.

In Krishna Kishore Singh v. Sarla A. Saraogi (2021), claims pertaining to the digital rights of deceased public figures were dismissed, demonstrating the judiciary’s reluctance to treat digital properties as inheritable assets without clear statutory backing.

No Supreme Court judgment has yet supplied a comprehensive framework for digital inheritance; most disputes involving digital property devolve to contract or privacy law, often resolved according to platform terms of service or ad hoc court orders.

Policy Developments

India’s governmental and legislative policy landscape is also shifting. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 introduced the “Right to Nominate” under Section 14 and Rule 13, giving individuals some ability to designate digital data recipients post-mortem. However, this nominative right remains theoretical without procedural coordination with succession statutes or data controllers.

• Committees and commentators recommend coordinated reforms across privacy, succession, and IT law.
• Suggestions include drafting a Digital Assets Succession Code.

Nevertheless, the Indian Succession Act, 1925 and Hindu Succession Act, 1956 remain silent about digital assets, creating a legislative void for executors seeking authority to access, distribute, or safeguard digital property after death.

Conflicts With IT And Data Laws

The Information Technology Act, 2000 regulates privacy, cybersecurity, and the prohibition of unauthorized access; it does not grant executors or heirs legal standing to inherit or retrieve digital property.

Rather, it may criminalize well-intentioned attempts by family members to access accounts, given the lack of statutory authority—even when such access would otherwise be recognized under traditional succession law.

Similarly, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023’s provisions on data privacy and consent do not yet include executor or heir rights, nor do they resolve conflicts arising from the digital nature of property management.

Contractual Override By Tech Platforms

Contractual terms of service from digital providers — Google, Apple, Facebook, and others — often override Indian law in practice, setting internal requirements about death, incapacitation, or account memorialization.

• Platforms privilege privacy or user autonomy over inheritance.
• Tools like Google’s Inactive Account Manager provide only partial control.
• Heirs must navigate opaque, inconsistent corporate policies.

Consequently, heirs may face requirements that contradict the wishes stated in Indian wills or succession documents.

Need For Statutory Reform

There is a growing discourse on recognizing digital assets as a new class of inheritable property. Legal experts urge statutory reform to include digital assets in the legal definition of property and propose fiduciary access provisions similar to the US RUFADAA.

The consensus is that without urgent amendments to succession laws and harmonization across IT, privacy, and contract domains, India’s legal system cannot accommodate the realities of digital legacy.

The Way Forward: Reforming Indian Succession Law

The recognition of digital assets as property is indispensable for the modernization of Indian succession law. Statutory reform is necessary to address the digital realities of investment, communication, and personal legacy. Integrating digital assets explicitly into the Indian Succession Act, 1925 or enacting a dedicated digital estate law would bridge the gap between technological progress and outdated legislative provisions, protecting the rights of both testators and heirs.

Legal experts and committees recommend that lawmakers either amend the Indian Succession Act to include digital assets as a distinct class of inheritable property or introduce a standalone statute for digital estate management. Legal recognition should cover both monetary and sentimental assets such as cryptocurrencies, domain names, digital art, and social media accounts to ensure their lawful transmission and prevent loss or misappropriation. Such statutes must also harmonize with data protection and IT laws so as to avoid criminalizing legitimate fiduciary access.

Digital Estate Planning Framework

A robust “Digital Estate Planning” framework should be mandated. This includes:

• Express inclusion of digital asset inventories in wills, trusts, and codicils.
• The appointment of digital asset managers, nominees, or digital executors with specific powers to access, manage, and distribute digital property.[5][8]
• Creation of uniform standards and templates that lawyers and testators can use to catalogue digital assets and specify testamentary wishes, including legacy contacts and posthumous access instructions in online platforms.

Adoption of digital estate inventories and role-specific digital executors will help avoid confusion and asset loss, aligning India with successful foreign models.

Guidelines for Testamentary Declaration, Fiduciary Access, and Privacy

Policy drafts should set out clear guidelines for:

• Testamentary declarations — explicit statements of intent regarding ownership, access, deletion, and transfer of digital property in legal documents.
• Fiduciary access protocols — allowing authorized agents or heirs to retrieve assets upon death subject to privacy and consent safeguards, modeled after the US RUFADAA hierarchy, which prioritizes the user’s instructions and, failing those, grants court-supervised access to designated fiduciaries.[3]
• Privacy safeguards — incorporating both statutory restrictions and technical safeguards against unauthorized access, ensuring data controllers and platforms cooperate while respecting user autonomy over private records and communications.

Model clauses, password managers, encrypted vaults, and legacy contact systems should be encouraged and standardized to promote responsible estate planning.

Role of Lawyers and Estate Planners

Lawyers and professional estate planners have a critical role in building awareness about digital inheritance, advising clients on asset identification and documentation, and integrating digital planning within broader estate plans. They should:

• Educate testators about the risks and requirements of digital legacy, including the impact of platform policies and evolving Indian law.
• Draft customized wills and trusts to encapsulate digital assets, utilizing emerging best practices and harmonizing documents with IT and privacy laws.
• Engage with policymakers and industry to shape standards for digital estate inventories, executor powers, and ethical management of digital legacies.

Professional guidance is necessary to ensure legal compliance and fulfillment of the testator’s wishes in an era of fast-evolving technology and complex digital property regimes.

Conclusion

The inheritance of digital assets represents a critical frontier in India’s legal modernization. Despite the exponential growth of digital property ownership, Indian succession law continues to operate within a framework designed for tangible assets, creating uncertainty for executors, heirs, and platforms alike. The absence of statutory recognition for digital estates has led to fragmented practices, privacy conflicts, and loss of valuable digital wealth. Comparative models such as the U.S. RUFADAA and European GDPR frameworks demonstrate that balanced legal mechanisms acknowledging both privacy and inheritance rights can effectively address these challenges.

India must now enact legislative reform by amending existing succession statutes or introducing a dedicated Digital Estate Law. This should include provisions for digital wills, fiduciary access protocols, nominee systems, and integration with data protection laws. Ultimately, a coherent legal regime for digital inheritance will not only safeguard individual autonomy and privacy but also ensure that India’s succession system evolves in step with its digital economy, preserving both monetary and emotional legacies for future generations.