UDTR Global Rights of Nature Radar

Personal Law and Property Rights of Hindu Woman in India - The Need for Codifi cation

Identification

Public canonical key

doi:10.46985/jms.v6i1.959

Authors

Sindhu Thulaseedharan

Reported year

2018

Reported language

en

Source type

article

First detected

2026-11-09T19:04:47.703674+00:00

Last metadata observation

2026-11-09T19:04:47.703674+00:00

Last HTTP verification

Not checked

Institutions reported by the source

University of Kerala

Reported affiliation countries

IN

Documentary abstract — original language

In India, the familial relations of any citizen, including inheritance, are governed by law related to his or her religion, which came to be known as personal law. The property rights of Hindu woman from the vedic age refl ected that daughter was given a share equal to that of a son, who in the later age of smritis ( traditional law) , came to inherit only in the absence of male issue. The nature of property of a Hindu woman, stridhanam (woman’s property) thus came to be distorted from absolute property right to ‘limited estate’ known as ‘woman’s estate’. That is, the property passed only to the next heirs of the last male owner of the female intestate. The legislations in the pre-independent India strengthened the position of Hindu woman. But the later laws limited her interest in property to the sense that she could alienate it for certain purposes only and the property possessed by her devolved on the heirs of her husband and not on her own heirs. The retention of testamentary power has further undermined gender-equality largely. Even at present, the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, allows existing property disputes to continue and does not affect rights that became vested prior to its implementation. Therefore, the codifi cation of personal law on succession becomes the need of the hour, since the patriarchal norms retained in the law have to be dropped.

Identifiers

OPENALEX

W3080234026

DOI

10.46985/jms.v6i1.959

Documentary context

Documentary family

Scholarship

Source-reported types

article

Jurisdictions studied — explicit sources

IN

Entity mentions are not evidence of legal recognition. Jurisdiction studied is separate from author affiliation country.

Sources

OpenAlex · Record 1 · Record 2

• DOI · https://doi.org/10.46985/jms.v6i1.959
• OpenAlex · https://openalex.org/W3080234026

Documentary status

Relevance pending

Library

This identity is not yet included in the Legal Library.