Discuss the changes introduced with regard to the property held by women under Hindu Succession Act, 1956..... .decided case law.

Question: Discuss the changes introduced with regard to the property held by women under Hindu Succession Act, 1956. Substantiate your answer with the help of decided case law. [JJS 2018]

Find the answer to Hindu Law only on Legal Bites. [Discuss the changes introduced with regard to the property held by women under Hindu Succession Act, 1956. Substantiate your answer with the help of decided case law.]

Answer

The Hindu Succession Act, 1956, is a landmark statute in India designed to codify and amend the law relating to intestate succession among Hindus. The Act brought significant changes in the year 2005 concerning the mode of inheritance of property by women of a Hindu Undivided Family.

Let us have a look at the significant changes introduced by the Amendment 2005 and their implications, supported by progressive judicial precedents:-

1. Equal Coparcenary Rights for Daughters:

Pre-2005 Scenario: Under the original 1956 Act, daughters were not considered coparceners in the Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) property, thus they were not entitled to have an equal right by birth to the ancestral property of HUF, unlike the sons.

The right of the daughters to a share in the property was only conferred upon the death of their father according to intestate succession, but this share was not equivalent to the rights of sons.

Post-2005 Amendment: Section 6 of the 1956 Act was amended in a way to grant the coparcenary right to daughters with equal rights to sons. Thus, the daughter has the same rights and liabilities in the coparcenary property as the son of HUF.

2. Retrospective Application:

The 2005 amendment was made applicable to all daughters born before or after the 2005 amendment. However, the only difficulty was that the rights of daughters were recognized only for partitions that took place after 2005.

There are various rulings of the Hon’ble Supreme Court which clarified that the 2005 amendment has retrospective effect, meaning daughters would have coparcenary rights even if the father passed away before the 2005 amendment, provided the partition had not occurred.

The Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Prakash v. Phulavati (2015) initially ruled that the 2005 amendment did not apply to daughters born before 1956. However, this was later overruled by the Vineeta Sharma decision, which affirmed that daughters have equal coparcenary rights regardless of when they were born.

Emphasis is also placed on another case of Danamma @ Suman Surpur v. Amar (2018) wherein the Court has established that daughters could claim partition in the coparcenary property, even if their father was not alive on the amendment date, reinforcing their equal inheritance rights.

The Supreme Court in its landmark decision Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma (2020) clarified that daughters have equal rights as sons to ancestral property, affirming that this right is by birth and applies retrospectively.

The changes introduced by the 2005 Amendment Act and supported by various judicial pronouncements have played a pivotal role in the advancement of the legal status of women in a Hindu Undivided Family in India, reflecting the ongoing evolution towards gender justice in inheritance laws.