Finance, Property, Contracts
Property that would have gone to the Crown or a princely ruler by escheat, lapse, or as ownerless property ("bona vacantia") instead vests in the relevant state (if situated there) or the Union (in any other case) - except property already in Union/State government possession at the relevant time, which vests according to whichever government's purposes it was then being used for.
"Escheat" and "bona vacantia" refer to property that has no rightful owner - like an estate where someone died without any legal heirs. This article establishes that such genuinely ownerless property now vests in the government (state or Union, depending on where it's located) rather than reverting to a monarch or princely ruler, as it would have under the pre-independence legal system.
If a person dies in India without a will and without any legal heirs, their property - which under the old system might have escheated to the Crown - now vests in the relevant state government (or the Union, if not located within any state) under this article.