INHERITANCE RIGHTS OF WOMEN UNDER HINDU SUCCESSION ACT: A CRITICAL STUDY

AUTHOR – PRAGYA MATHUR, STUDENT AT AMITY LAW SCHOOL, AMITY UNIVERSITY, MUMBAI

BEST CITATION – PRAGYA MATHUR, INHERITANCE RIGHTS OF WOMEN UNDER HINDU SUCCESSION ACT: A CRITICAL STUDY, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 5 (9) OF 2025, PG. 276-283, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344.

This article is published in the collaborated special issue of Amity Law School, Amity University, Mumbai and the Institute of Legal Education (ILE), titled “Emerging Trends in Law: Exploring Recent Developments and Reforms” (ISBN: 978-81-986345-1-1).

ABSTRACT

The present paper critically analyzes the development of property rights of Hindu women in India with special emphasis on the effects of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 (HSA) and the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 (HSAA). In the past, Hindu women enjoyed very limited rights of inheritance, being socially and economically inferior to men. The institution of coparcenary property, a special category of joint family property, classically limited inheritance by birth to male lineal descendants. The Hindu Women’s Right to Property Act of 1937 granted limited rights, mostly to widows. The passing of the HSA in 1956 was a turning point by acknowledging the property rights of Hindu women and instituting ideas such as testamentary and intestate succession, and absolute ownership under Section 14, instead of limited estates. The 1956 Act did not initially confer coparcenary rights by birth on daughters over ancestral property. Realizing that this gender bias had to be eliminated and in accordance with principles of constitutional equality, the HSAA 2005 was introduced. This historic amendment granted daughters the status of coparceners by birth, with rights and liabilities being the same as sons in coparcenary property. Despite these progressive legal changes, challenges in implementation and interpretation persist, including issues regarding the retrospective effect of the amendment, the impact of partition, and societal resistance rooted in patriarchal norms. In addition, the provisions of intestate succession of a Hindu woman under Section 15 of the HSA 1956 have been criticized on grounds of discrimination, and the husband’s heirs usually take preference over her family of birth, even for self-acquired property. This article critically discusses these pressing issues and concerns by examining the pertinent provisions, landmark judicial decisions such as Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma and Arunachala Gounder (dead) By Lrs v. Ponnusamy, and throwing light on the ongoing struggle for gender justice and social reform towards realizing real equality in Hindu succession laws. Keywords: Female Coparcenary, Female Inheritence, Judicial Interpretation, Gender Discrimination, Hindu Succession Act 1956, HSAA 2005, Intestate Succession, Property Rights, Social Reform