Women’s right to property under Hindu law: a socio legal study

Abstract

The women play a significant role in the life of every individual human being. Securing her better birthrights would mean giving better future to our own society, family and to every individual. The gender inequality facets in different forms, but the most tedious one percept relate to the effective property rights. This disparity in property right pertaining to gender, spells from ancient times. Under ancient Hindu Society, a woman was considered to be of low in social status and treated as a dependent with barely any property rights. Under the old Mitakshara Law, on birth, the son acquires a right and interest in the family property. According to this school, a son, grandson, and a great grandson constitute a class of coparceners, based on births in family. No female is a member of the coparcenary in Mitakshara Law. The earliest legislation brought females into the scheme of inheritance as The Hindu Law of Inheritance Act, 1929, conferred inheritance rights on three females heirs i.e., son s daughter, daughter s daughters and sister. During this period another landmark legislation conferring ownership right on a woman was the Hindu women s Right to Property Act XVIII of 1937. The Act of 1937 enabled the widow to succeed along with the son and to take the same share as the son. The widow is not a coparcener even though she posses a right akin to coparcener s interest in the property and is a member of the joint family. newlinePrior to commencement of the Act of 1956 the property held by a Hindu female was classified under two heads: (1) Stridhan and (2) Hindu Women s estate. The former was regarded as her absolute property over which she had full ownership and on her death it devolved upon her heirs. The later was considered to be her limited estate with respect to which her powers of alienation were limited. The Hindu Succession Act, 1956 is the landmark legislation in this field, it got all the Hindus under the one kind of joint family coparcenary system i.e. Mitakshara coparcenary.