Hindu Succession Act, 1956 - IAS Academy in Coimbatore
Context
- A Member of Parliament has urged the Central government to include women from the Scheduled Tribes (ST) communities in Hindu Succession Act.
Hindu Succession Act, 1956:
- The Mitakshara school of Hindu law codified as the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 governed succession and inheritance of property but only recognised males as legal heirs.
- It applied to everyone who is not a Muslim, Christian, Parsi or Jew by religion. Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains and followers of Arya Samaj, Brahmo Samaj, are also considered Hindus for this law.
- In a Hindu Undivided Family, several legal heirs through generations can exist jointly.
- Traditionally, only male descendants of a common ancestor along with their mothers, wives and unmarried daughters are considered a joint Hindu family. The legal heirs hold the family property jointly.
Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005:
- The 1956 Act was amended in September 2005 and women were recognised as coparceners for property partitions arising from 2005.
- Section 6 of the Act was amended to make a daughter of a coparcener also a coparcener by birth “in her own right in the same manner as the son”.
- It also gave the daughter the same rights and liabilities “in the coparcenary property as she would have had if she had been a son”.
- The law applies to ancestral property and to intestate succession in personal property, where succession happens as per law and not through a will.