This Article is written by Vaibhav Singh (a 3rd-year law student from USLLS, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University)
INTRODUCTION
The Hindu Succession Act, 1956 is an Act relating to the succession and inheritance of property. This Act lays down a comprehensive and uniform system that incorporates both succession and inheritance. This Act also deals with intestate or unwilled (testamentary) succession. Therefore, this Act combines all the aspects of Hindu succession and brings them into its ambit.
In India, the social stature of women was once kept in really high regard but with the advent of time, there could be seen a change in attitude towards women. Because of this change in the attitude towards women, practices such as polygamy, sati, dowry, female foeticide, etc. came to the surface. These evil practices were highly condemned by the social workers such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy who stood against the practice of sati, and vehemently worked towards abolishing it and was successful in doing so. It was widely believed that women, as compared to men belonged to the weaker sex and were physically as well as mentally, less strong than men in all aspects of life. This stigma still prevails and it is believed that women are to be protected and guarded by their parents before they get married and once, they are wedded off, they become the property of their husbands to protect and take care of. Women, earlier, had no say in choosing as to the flow of money in the house as she was always financially dependent first on her father, then on her husband and later on her sons. Thus it can be said that she had no identity of her own and lived under the roof provided by and belonging to her relatives.
This status of women is often attributed to the fact that women were the counter part in a society which was dominated by men. The Brahmanical codes which gave the code of conduct for women also contributed to the lower status of women because of its discriminating nature. Over time, there has been a lot of change in what women are perceived as today and what their status is as compared to the earlier times. Today, due to the law which calls for equality against women, they have started enjoying the equality with men. The Constitution of India prohibits discrimination in any field based on the gender and thus provides equal opportunities to men as to women in all spheres of life. Though there is still a long way to go before it can be said that both men as well as women walk shoulder to shoulder. The development of the nation is hugely dependent on the improvement in the condition of women as they constitute almost half of the Indian population and in order to be fully developed, the status of women needs to be elevated higher than it is today. The change in this status of women will result in change in the socioeconomic status of women. In the present times, there can be seen a sense of awareness among women regarding their position in the society. Women are working towards achieving their desired goals as regards to their career. Women, lately, have also been politically active and have been participating in the political practices such as voting and even representing political parties. It has been observed that there have been more women voters than men voters on polling days. There have been women who have worked to great depths to uplift the status of women in the country. Literary personalities, administrators, social workers, etc. who are women have changed the way women are perceived in the society.
Since historic times, a woman could only live life under her husband, father, sons etc. but after certain changes in-laws, women get various rights & Privileges for living with dignity under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. In ancient times, women did not have any kind of share or ownership in father’s property because of the domination of male in succession for e.g. Male used to be the head of the joint family & therefore he held the rights to ancestral property. Hindu Succession Act, 1956 originally did not give inheritance rights in ancestral property. Most of the changes were brought in status of women in her father’s property after the Hindu Succession Act 2005, this amendment tried to maintain Article 14, 15, & 21 of the constitution of India. There are certain provisions of Hindu Succession Act 1956 amended by Hindu Succession Act 2005. After this amendment various issues were raised regarding interest of women in ancestral property and whether this amendment has a Prospective effect or Retrospective effect, upon this issue the Judiciary/ Court gave excellent interpretation or explanation for prospective effect.
OBJECTIVE OF HINDU SUCCESSION ACT, 1956
The Hindu Succession Act, 1956 has been passed to meet the needs of a progressive society. The old law despite several innovations brought about in it by stray legislations and judicial decisions did not fulfil the desired ends and remained hardly acceptable to a dynamic Hindu society of contemporary era. Hence there was a need for a uniform system of law of succession which may be acceptable to all sections of Hindus and be equally enforceable upon them.
With this end in view the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 came into existence. It removes inequities between men and women with respect to rights in property and it lays down a common list of heirs entitled to succeed on intestacy. The Act has been passed to amend and codify the entire law of succession.
APPLICABILITY OF HINDU SUCCESSION ACT,1956
AS PER RELIGION
This Act applies to the following:
Any person who is a Hindu by religion in any of its forms or developments including a Virashaiva, a Lingayat or follower of the Brahmo, Prarthana or Arya Samaj;
Any person who is Buddhist, Sikh by religion; and
to any other person who is not a Muslim, Christian, Parsi, or Jew by religion unless it is proved that the concerned person would not have been governed by the Hindu Law or by any custom or usage as part of that law in respect of any of the matters dealt with herein if this Act had not been passed.
Explanation as to who shall be considered as Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, or Sikhs by religion has been provided in the section:
Any child, legitimate or illegitimate, both of whose parents are Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, or Sikhs by religion;
Any child, legitimate or illegitimate, one of whose parents is a Hindu, Buddhist, Jain or Sikh by religion and who is brought up as a member of the tribe, community, group or family to which such parent belongs or belonged;
Any person who is converted or re-convert to the Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, or Sikh religion.
A person shall be treated as a Hindu under the Act though he may not be a Hindu by religion but is, nevertheless, a person to whom this Act applies under the provisions contained in this section.
AS PER TRIBE
However, it has been provided that notwithstanding the religion of any person as mentioned above, the Act shall not apply to the members of any Scheduled Tribe within the meaning of clause (25) of Article 366 of the Constitution of India unless the Central Government, by notification in the Official Gazette, otherwise directs. Surajmani Stella Kujur Vs. Durga Charan Hansdah-SC.
IN THE CASE OF MALES
The property of a Hindu male dying intestate, or without a will, would be given first to heirs within Class I. If there are no heirs categorized as Class I, the property will be given to heirs within Class II. If there are no heirs in Class II, the property will be given to the deceased’s agnates or relatives through male lineage. If there are no agnates or relatives through the male’s lineage, then the property is given to the cognates or any relative through the lineage of females.
The classes of heirs that are delineated by the Act are:
Class I heirs are sons, daughters, widows, mother and grandchildren
If there is more than one widow, multiple surviving sons, or multiples of any of the other heirs listed above, each shall be granted one share of the deceased’s property. Also if the widow of a pre-deceased son, the widow of a pre-deceased son of a pre-deceased son, or the widow of a brother has remarried, she is not entitled to receive the inheritance.
Class II heirs are categorized as follows and are given the property of the deceased in the following order:
- Father
- Son’s Daughter’s son
- Son’s daughter’s daughter
- Brother
- Sister
- Daughter’s son’s son, daughter’s son’s daughter, daughter’s son, daughter’s daughter
- Brother’s son, sister’s son, brother’s daughter, sister’s daughter
- Father’s father, father’s mother
- Father’s widow, brother’s widow
- Father’s brother, father’s sister
- Mother’s father, mother’s mother
- Mother’s brother, mother’s sister
If no one from the Class I heirs takes the property, then Class II heirs fall in line to get the property. In Kalyan Kumar Bhattacharjee v. Pratibha Chakraborty AIR 2010 (NOC) 646 (Gau), the property fell into the share of the defendant brother named Ranjit, who was unmarried. However, he became traceless and the property was divided amongst two other brothers in equal shares. The plaintiff’s brother called Jagadish then executed a will in favour of both the plaintiff and died afterwards. However, the defendants then asked them to vacate the land, contending that inter alia that the land has been purchased in the name of three brothers; namely Jagadish, Ranjit and Kalyan, the defendant number 1. It was held that when a Hindu male is unmarried and he dies, and is not survived by a Class I heir, the Class II heirs would get the property.
Similarly, when in heirs in Class III and IV are there, the property would only go to them if no one from the Class II is present.
Class III heirs
This consists of the agnates of the deceased. Class III heirs only inherit the property when none form the earlier classes gets the property. An agnate is a person who is related to the intestate only through male relatives. An agnate can be a male or a female.
Rules of preference among agnates:
Each generation is referred to as a degree. The first degree is intestate. Degrees of ascent mean ancestral or upwards directions. Degrees of descent means in the descendants or downwards direction. Where an agnate has both ascent and descent degrees, each has to be considered separately. An agnate having descent degree will be preferred over the one having ascent degree. When two agnates have ascent and descent degrees, the one having lesser number of ascent degrees will be preferred.
Class IV heirs
A cognate (Class IV) is someone who was related to the intestate through mixed relatives, in terms of sex. For example, an intestate’s paternalaunt’ssonishiscognate,buthispaternaluncle’sdaughterwill be anagnate.
Therefore, to sum up it can be said that the property of the Hindumale devolves in the followingmanner:
First, to the heirs in ClassI.
Second, if there exists no heir of Class I, then it goes to Class II heirs.
Third, if none from the Class I or II exists, then it goes to the agnates (ClassIII).
Fourth,ifnoonefromtheearlierthreeclassesexists,thenitgoes to the cognates (ClassIV).
SON
The expression ’son’ can include both a natural born son or adopted son but does not include a stepson or illegitimate child. In Kanagavalli v. Saroja AIR 2002 Mad 73, the appellants were the legal heir of one Natarajan. Natarajan was earlier married to the first respondent, the second respondent was the son and the third respondent was the mother of Natarajan. The first respondent obtained a decree of restitution of conjugal rights but still no reunion occurred between them. The first appellant claimed to have married Natarajan in 1976 and the appellants 2 to 5 were born through them. Natarajan died afterwards. The suit was filed for declaration that the appellants were the legal heirs of the said Natarajan along with respondents 1 to 3, and they were entitled to the amounts due from the Corporation where Natarajan worked. The Court held that a son born of a void or voidable marriage that is declared to be annulled by the Court, will be a legitimate child and would thus inherit the property of his father. A son has absolute interest in the property and his son cannot claim birthright in it. Therefore, ‘son’ does not include grandson, but does include a posthumous son.
IN THE CASE OF FEMALES
Under the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, females are granted ownership of all property acquired either before or after the signing of the Act, abolishing their “limited owner” status. However, it was not until the 2005 Amendment that daughters were allowed equal receipt of property as with sons. This invariably grants females property rights.
The property of a Hindu female dying intestate, or without a will, shall devolve in the following order:
upon the sons and daughters (including the children of any pre- deceased son or daughter) and the husband,
- upon the heirs of the husband.
- upon the father and mother
- upon the heirs of the father, and
DAUGHTER
The term ‘daughter’ includes a natural or adopted daughter, but not a stepdaughter or illegitimate daughter. The daughter of a void or voidablemarriageannulledbytheCourtwouldbealegitimatedaughter and thus would be eligible to inherit the father’s property. The daughter’s marital status, financial position etc is of no consideration. The share of the daughter is equal to that of the son.
WIDOW
The widow gets a share that is equal to that of the son. If there exists more than one widow, they collectively take one share that is equal to the son’s share and divide it equally among themselves. This widow should have been of a valid marriage.InthecaseofRamkaliv.Mahila Shyamwati AIR 2000 MP 288, it was held that a woman who was in a voidable or void marriage,andthatmarriagewasnullifiedbytheCourt on the death of the husband, would not be called his widow and would not have rights to succeed to his property.
If the widow of a predeceased son, widow of a predeceased son of a pre-deceased son or the widow brother has remarried, then she shall not be given the term of ‘widow’, and will not have the inheritance.
Certain exceptions:
Any person who commits murder is disqualified from receiving any form of inheritance from the victim.
If a relative converts from Hinduism, he or she is still eligible for inheritance. The descendants of that converted relative, however, are disqualified from receiving an inheritance from their Hindu relatives, unless they have converted to Hinduism before the death of the relative.
SALIENT FEATURES OF THE HINDUSUCCESSION ACT, 1956
The Act provides for a uniform heritage therein for to persons in the Mitakshara and Dayabhaga schools as well as to persons of Southern India who are governed by Hindu law systems Marumakkattayam, Aliyasanthana and Nambudri.
The Act includes all Hindus, including Hindu Buddhists.
Even anyone whose parents are Buddhist, Jain, Hindu and Sikh and raised as Hindus have been extended further.
The law does not cover a person for whom it applies under the 1954 special marriage law.
The provisions of Section 4 of the Act shall have overriding effect. It repeals, through any text, customs or use, all the legal provisions of succession previously relevant to the Hindus. It has the force of law. Any other Rules of Federal or State law shall cease to be applicable to the degree that they are incompatible with other sections of the Statute.
The Act also removed unbiased estate and the unique method of replacing it.
The Act affected extensively the entire notion of coparcenary Mitakshara, which was subject to the rule of survival. Under this arrangement the husbands had no position and the land was only passed to the husband’s descendants upon the demise of a husband in the Act. There is little application for the rule of survival. It is only applicable if a male member left coparceners after his death. When a male member of a coparcener of mitakshar dies untestate leaving a female heir specified in class I of the law, the deceased ‘s property will be shifted not under the rule of survival but according to the rules of this Act providing for the particular portion of the deceased.
The sequence given by the law is largely known as the doctrine of proximity or the proximity of blood. The heirs are thus divided into four categories rather than three, as follows:
Heirs in class I of the Schedule
Heirs in class II of the Schedule
Agnates
Cognates
First, the property shall be passed to twelve preferred heirs referred to in Class I of the Annex of the Act. In this manner, these heirs shall not be moved to the second, third and fourth tiers. The above division has a particular aspect, that, in accordance with the doctrine of recognition for previous sons and daughters, the heirs in Class I of the Schedule shall inherit the property simultaneously.
Another significant argument is that class I of the Plan contained a number of twelve beneficiaries, eight of whom are women and four are males, one of whom is male by gender. All are equally shared inheritors. Not all heirs in class II succeed at the same time, but the heirs put into one entry are permitted to inherit at the same time.
The rules of selection have been used for determining the primary focus of the third and fourth classifications of heirs, that is, agnates and cognates.
The Act abolished Hindu women’s restricted property and managed to make the property their absolute proprietor regardless of their source of purchase. Everything that a Hindu woman acquires and possesses in any legitimate way is her absolute property and she is able to dispose of it in the way she wants.
The Act further provided for a consistent succession order in the field of women’s Hindu lands. Her wealth is divided to her child and spouse to her death intestate and her father and her father’ heirs afterwards. In the absence of any problems, the property heritage would return to her parent’s heirs rather than to the husband or husband’s heirs. On her dying intestate, her property shall devolve on her children and husband and thereafter upon her parents and the heirs of parents. In absence of any issues to her, the property inherited from her parents would revert back to the heirs of parent instead of devolving upon the husband or heirs of husband.
The rights of the child in the womb on the death of the inheritance and then born alive refer back to the date of death of the intestate.
The Act establishes general rules of succession, amongst other things that heirs of a male or a female executor are preferable to half-blood-related ones if the nature of the relationship is the same in all other respects. Another provision is if two or even more heirs succeed in an intestate’s land, they are not allowed to take their portion per capita. These heirs consider the property to be common holders rather than joint holders.
The legislation on removal from heritage has been extensively amended by the Constitution. Any reason for exclusion due to physical defects or disease shall be dismissed. The discard is limited to the remarriage of a widow of a former son, widow of a previous son of a former son and brother widow. The Act often applies to a perpetrator who is exempt from fairness and equality standards. Conversion no longer implies that an individual is no longer a beneficiary of the land, but an ancestor of a convert has been excluded from the land of his Hindu kin.
HISTORY OF HINDU SUCCESSION ACT 2005
The term ‘Hindu Undivided Family’ is defined under the Hindu Law as a family that consists of all persons lineally descended from a common ancestor, including wives and unmarried daughters. This means your membership into a HUF does not come from a contract but from your status. A HUF cannot be formed by a group of people who do not constitute a family; lineal descendants with a common ancestor is a must. Even though Jain and Sikh families are not governed by Hindu law, they can still be treated as HUF. A HUF consists of:
Karta
The karta has to be the oldest male in the family. If he passes away, his wife cannot become the karta. His eldest son will take his place. If he chooses not to, he can give up his right and the next son in line can take his place.
Coparceners
This is what all the male members are referred to as. A Hindu coparcenary includes the sons, grandsons and great-grandsons of the holder of the joint family property. By virtue of their birth, they acquire an interest in the property.
Members
The female members are simply called members.
According to the amending Act of 2005, in a Joint Hindu Family governed by the mitakshara Law, the daughter of a coparcener shall, also by birth become a coparcener in her own right in the same manner as the son heir. She shall have the same rights in the coparcenary property as she would have had if she had been a son.
She shall be subject to the same liabilities and disabilities in respect of
the said coparcenary property as that of a son and any reference to a Hindu mitakshara coparcener shall be deemed to include a reference to a daughter. But this provision shall not apply to a daughter married before the commencement of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act of 2005. This provision shall not affect or invalidate any disposition or alienation including partition or testamentary disposition of property which had taken place before 20th December, 2004. Further, any property to which female Hindu becomes entitled by virtue of above provision shall be held by her with the incidents of coparcenary ownership and shall be regarded, as property capable of being disposed of by her by will and other testamentary disposition. The provision was also made that where a Hindu die after the commencement of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act of 2005, his interest in the property of a Joint Hindu Family governed by the Mitakshara Law, shall devolve by testamentary or intestate succession under the Act and not by survivorship, and the coparcenary property shall be deemed to have been divided as if a partition had taken place.
JUDICIAL PRONOUNCEMENT
Hindu Succession Amendment Act 2005 are applicable to living daughters of living Coparceners as on 9th Sept. 2005. Irrespective of when such daughters are born. Also a daughter is born also a daughter can claim for share in the coparcenary property when both she & here father should be alive on the date of the said amendment. Supreme Court come on the opinion that if such a coparcener had died prior to the commencement of the amendment of the date of the death as per the prevailing provisions of the succession law & the rights of the heirs get crystalized even if partition by metes & bounds does not take place it was pointed out that apparently conflicting provision in explanation to Sec. 6(5) & the said section was required to be given harmonious construction with the main provision. But the explanation could not be read in conflict with main provision. Main provision talks about the right of coparcener on a daughter only from commencement of the Act & not for any period prior to that. Vaishali Satish Ganorkar v. Satish Keshaorao Ganorkar AIR 2012, Bom 101 In this case Bombay High Court held that the Hindu Succession amendment will not apply unless the daughter is born after 2005. But on this aspect a different view has been taken in the later larger Bench Judgment so court specifically focused on that is required the daughter should be alive & her father also be alive on the date of the amendment. Badrinarayan Shankar Bhandari v. Om Prakash Shankar Bhandari AIR 2014 Bom 151 Main issue of this case is whether Hindu Succession Amendment Act 2005 should be applicable for before the amendment id made but in this case specifically laid down Hindu Succession Act having Prospective effect & not retrospective effect. Income Tax V. G. S. Mills AIR 1966 In this case Supreme Court considered whether Women can become Karta of Family. So Court held that the Widow could not be Karts of the family this does not mean that women cannot be the Karats of the joint family.
IMPORTANT CHANGES BROUGHT BY HINDUSUCCESSION ACT, 1956
Changes in the Hindu joint family:
Firstly, under the pre-existent law in the Hindu joint family, a coparcener could not write in respect of his interest or property in the family. But Section 30 of the Hindu Succession Act enables a coparcener to write a will in respect of his property. Secondly, on the death of coparcener, the principle of survivorship was recognised.
So that the property went to other coparceners. The widow or the daughter or daughter’s daughter of the pre-deceased coparcener cannot inherit his share in the joint family property. But under section 6 of Hindu Succession Act the widow, daughter etc., can inherit his share and so the principle of survivorship is indirectly abolished.
Abolition of Sapindas Relationship:
The present Act has abolished the previous rules of inheritance. Now new rules are laid down on a totally different basis. The past sapindas relationship was totally abolished. In that place love and affection theory has come into the existence and as such both males and females could inherit the property of the deceased. It is based on the principles of justice.
This is a very important change brought about by the Act. The old law discriminated a male and female heir in the case of inheritance.
Females were not at all given the right of inheritance and were totally excluded. But a limited right namely; widow’s estate or limited estate was given to the widows. By that they could neither sell nor gift the property.
After the widow’s death, the property will not go to her daughter or near relationship but will revert back to the relations of the deceased husband. Now this is totally abolished and females are equally entitled with the males in the inheritance of property. Removal of Disqualifications:
The pre-existent law disqualified the following persons from inheritance:
(a) Lunatics, (b) Idiots, (c) Unchaste widows. Now such disqualifications are abolished.
Separate Property of Male Propositus:
Under the old law, simultaneous succession of different types of heirs was not recognised, e.g., when son was living the daughter, mother, father, etc., should not inherit. Succession of different types of heirs is partly recognised. Now the class I heirs namely, son, daughter, widow and mother can inherit the properties of deceased simultaneously and in equal proportion.
But in the simultaneous succession it is partly because only class I heirs can simultaneously inherit the property. The class II heirs, Agnates and Cognates cannot inherit when Class I heirs are existing. The old preferential succession is recognised in the succession of classes. Agnates will inherit in the absence of class I and II heirs, etc.
Changes in Illegitimate Sons:
Under the pre-existing law, the right of succession of illegitimate son varied from school to school. It also depended on the caste to which the parents belonged. But now illegitimate son is recognised only with reference to mother and not at all connected with father’s property.
So the position of illegitimate son is simplified and he cannot claim as heir at all. In the same way, the illegitimate son of the legitimate son cannot claim any right to the grand-father or grand-mother’s property. But the legitimate son of illegitimate son can claim right to the grand- mother’s property alone.
Consanguine and Uterine Blood Relations:
The heir-ship under the Succession Act is restricted to blood relations only. But consanguinity was recognised in the old law. A Hindu female could not have two husbands in her life time. So the prior Hindu Law did not recognise uterine blood relationship. But in the present Act, uterine relations are also recognised.
But both must be legitimate or adopted, it should not be illegitimate. Consanguine means one husband having more wives and the relationship of children among themselves is called consanguinity.
Uterine relationship means wife having more than one husband and relationship of children among themselves in such a case.
Others changes:
The female heirs except in Bombay took only life estate. Now all females take absolute estate.
In the previous law, the benefit of doctrine of representation was given only to sons, grandsons and great grandsons of the pre-deceased sons. But now this doctrine of representation is extended to daughters, children of pre-deceased daughters, daughters of pre-deceased sons and daughter of a pre-deceased son of a pre-deceased son etc.
The previous degree relationship namely five degrees on the mother’s side and seven degrees on the father’s side marked the limits of cognatic relationship. But now the above limits are removed for cognates.
In the same way, 14th degree of samonadakas marked the limits of agnate’s relationship. Now the limit is completely removed.
The Act has abolished impartible estates except those created by statute.
The Act does not apply to properties of a person who married under the provisions of the Special Marriage Act, 1954.
The Act does not apply to Mitakshara coparcenary property. But when coparcener dies leaving female heirs mentioned in class I of the Act or male relative of the claim claiming through such female relative, the property of the ancestor is subjected to rules of inheritance under the Act and the coparcenership is abolished.
The Act abolished the difference between male and female heirs.
MAJOR CHANGES BROUGHT BY THE HINDUSUCCESSION (AMMENDMENT) ACT, 2005
Amendment to Section 4(2) of the Act
The said amendment deleted Section 4(2) of The Act, which provided for exemption of agricultural property from the scope of The Act. The provision was regulated by State level tenure laws and resulted in bias against women as it was obscuring their right to capacitate agricultural land. It is a paramount step towards the long-overdue goal of attainment of equality between men and women. However, one major shortcoming of the amendment is the lack of clarity, as it has not explicitly mentioned whether the said amendment will supersede the state laws on agriculture. The Delhi High Court answered this question in Nirmala and Ors. v. Government of NCT of Delhi and Ors., in which it held that the omission of sub-section 2 of Section 4 will result in the overriding effect of the provisions of the Hindu Succession Act over the Delhi Land Reform Act.
Revamping of Section 6
Before the said amendment was passed, women had negligible rights in terms of inheritance of property either from their father or husband. Women were allowed to inherit properties in only two cases, that is, a. when they received gifts from relatives and b. when they received gifts from strangers. They had absolute ownership and rights to dispose of the property for the former, whereas, for the latter, they had limited rights.
The amendment resulted in restructuring the provision of Section 6 of The Act. The old provision was deleted and a new provision was inserted which provided that daughters become coparceners in the property of a Joint Hindu Family by birth and they have equal rights and liabilities in comparison to a son born in the same family. The new provision states that “On and from the commencement of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 (39 of 2005), in a Joint Hindu family governed by the Mitakshara law, the daughter of a coparcener shall,― (a) by birth become a coparcener in her own right the same manner as the son; (b) have the same rights in the coparcenary property as she would have had if she had been a son; (c) be subject to the same liabilities in respect of the said coparcenary property as that of a son, and any reference to a Hindu Mitakshara coparcener shall be deemed to include a reference to a daughter of a coparcener.”
Furthermore, due to the said amendment, daughters continue to hold the positions of coparceners even after marriage. As the daughter has been provided with the right to become coparceners by birth, she remains to hold such right even after marriage which results in giving her a chance to even become Karta of the family.
The Omission of Section 23
Section 23 of The Act deprived a female heir to seek partition of a dwelling house unless a male heir chose to do so. The provision provided that a female heir could only dwell in the house if she was separated, unmarried, widowed, or deserted. Due to this section, a female heir could not claim her rights and had to depend on a male heir. The said amendment omitted Section 23 of the Hindu Succession Act.
Rescinding of Section 24
Section 24 of The Act provided that any heir who is related to an intestate as the widow of a predeceased son or the widow of a brother shall not be entitled to succeed to the property of intestate as to such widow if on the date the succession starts, she has remarried. The provision was based on the assumption that a widowed woman deserves right to her deceased husband’s property only until she remarries as until then she is deemed to be the surviving half of the deceased. The said provision was rescinded by the amendment as it was based on a morally preposterous and egregious assumption.
CONCLUSION
The Hindu Succession Act of 1956 was highly discriminatory towards women and thus was much needed to be done away with. There was an urgent need for the Amendment Act which would do away with the derogatory provisions which kept women lower than men. There is a great need for women to be financially independent in order for them to be able to rise above the barriers that are put in front of them by society. The Act of 1956 hampered this and disabled women from being financially independent. The amendment act has come out to be very helpful to the women seeking financial independence as they no longer have to bear the torments of them in-laws because of the financial helplessness. The amendment Act has enabled the women with the right to be able to stand on their own without seeking any support, the equality ensured under the Constitution was re-established and the provisions granted the equality in status of son and daughter in a Joint Hindu Family. Though the certain ambiguity still exists in regards to the validly adopted daughters, as this term is nowhere mentioned in the amended Act and her rights in regards to inheritance of her father’s property. Also the children of the daughter will be treated as coparceners in the same sense as that of son’s children, as the status of son or daughter has been equally under section 6 of the Act.
Hence, it is the most eminent achievement in the backdrop of where Hindu women were situated in the society before this amendment came into being.
REFERENCES
- The Hindu Succession Act, 1956 (30 of 1956) – Commentary by National Commission for Women, India
- Lavin and S. Ahmad, “Evaluating real-time anomaly detection algorithms – The numenta anomaly benchmark,” in Proceedings – 2015 IEEE 14th International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications, ICMLA 2015, 2016.
- Statutes:
- Hindu Succession Act 1956
- Hindu Succession Act 2005
- Constitution of India 1950
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_Succession_Act,_1956
- https://unlocking-the-future.com/7-important-changes-brought- about-by-hindu-succession-act-1956/
- R. A. Ariyaluran Habeeb, F. Nasaruddin, A. Gani, I. A. Targio Hashem, E. Ahmed, and M. Imran, “Real-time big data processing for anomaly detection: A Survey,” International Journal of Information Management. 2019.
- Articles/Journals/Reports:
- Krishnaprasad, “equal rights of daughters to ancestral property remains: HC”, Dt 1st Oct (2015)
- Law Commission of India, 174th Report on “Property Rights of women: Proposed Reform under the Hindu Law.”2000 (May, 5, (2000).
- Abhay Nevagi, “Whether the Hindu Succession Act 2005 will have retrospective or prospective effect”
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