Rights of women and society

          In India the roots of Patriarchal society is quite deep hence resultant is the persisting inequality between Male and Female. Moreover, they have been deprived of equal right or have been discriminated on the basis of sex. So much so that they did not have equal right in their ancestral property. In the year 1956 The Hindu succession Act,1956 was enacted by the competent authority. The main objective of this act is to amend and codify the law relating to interstate succession among Hindus. Section 6 of Hindu succession Act states that the devolution of interest in coparcener property. According to this Section after the Hindu succession Amendment Act 2005 A joint Hindu family governed by the mitakshra law, the daughter of coparcener shall become a coparcener in her own right by birth like son.

        Thus, now daughters shall be coparcener. As, They were not a coparcener in the joint hindu family, as a result they were denied the right to inherit in their father's property.

What is the coparcener ?

        Coparcener in the relation of a joint Hindu family denotes a person who is entitled to ask for partition of his share in ancestral property.

         In other words a coparcener is the one who has shares equally in the inheritance of in undivided family.

What is the coparcener property?

            Coparcener property is one which is inherited by Hindu from father, grandfather or great grandfather. Therefore, only a coparcener has the right to ask for partition of ancestral property.

What is the rule male Hindu dying intestate

           The property of a male Hindu dying intestate shall devolve according to following provisions..

👉Section 8 of Hindu Succession Act, 1956 provides the General Rules of Succession in the case of Males- According to this section first and foremost the Property shall devolve upon the heirs, being the relatives specified in class 1 of the Schedule. After that if there is no heir of class I, then upon the heirs, being the relatives specified in class II of the Schedule. After that in case of no heir of any of the two classes, then upon the agnates of the deceased, and at the last if there is no agnate, then upon the cognate of the deceased. 

👉 Section 9 of the Act, 1956 talks about the Order of Succession among heirs in the schedule. According to this Section Among the heirs specified in the Schedule, those in class I shall take simultaneously and to the exclusion of all other heirs, those in the first entry in class II shall be preferred to those in the second entry, those in the second entry shall be preferred to those in the third entry, and so on in succession. 

👉 Section 10 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, talks about destribution of Property among heirs class 1 of the schedule. According to this Section the property of an intestate shall be divided in the following manners -

 Firstly. The intestate’s widow, or if there are more widow than one, all the widows together, shall take one share.

Secondly. The surviving sons and daughter and the mother of the intestate shall each take one share.

Thirdly. The heirs in the branch of each pre-deceased son or each pre-deceased daughter of the intestate shall take between them one share.

         In this reference recently, in case of Vineeta Sharma vs Rakesh Sharma three Judges bench Arun Mishra, justice, S Nazeer, Justice, M.R. Shah, Justice held that daughters shall have an equal right in inheritance of joint Hindu family like a son birth.

👉Supreme court further held that the amendment under section 6 of Hindu succession Act 1956 which provides Equal Right to daughters in a ancestral property now it will have retrospective effect.

👉Justice Arun Mishra pointedout that a daughter always remains a loving daughter, a son is a son until he gets a wife, a daughter is a daughter throughout her life.'

👉It is further held that the right of women in ancestral property is by birth and it does not depend on whether her father was alive or not when the law was enacted.

👉It is further held that daughters cannot be deprived of their right of equality provided under section 6 of Hindu succession Act 1956.

👉The court also held that the pending cases shall be decided as for as possible, within 6 months.

              It is vivid that now daughters have equal right with the son and they are entitled to get Equal share in ancestral property because this decision overruled previous rule and after the decision section 6 has retrospective effect. Moreover, this judgement has cleared the confusion about the law and has ended the legal ambiguity. On the other hand it may be a bone of contention because it may cause lot of rifts between two families, as a result families will be disintegrate. Above all the love between brother and sister may be vanished.

                ✍️_Vikas_Deep