The first step towards gender equality in Hindu inheritance was taken in the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005. The traditional Mitakshara system of succession to property in the Hindu undivided family was codified in the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, by which the heirs were male. The 2005 amendment made daughters coparceners too, equal to sons. Last Tuesday, the Supreme Court cleared the confusions that had arisen since then, caused by two opposing court rulings regarding the daughter’s inheritance if the father had died before the amendment. This time, the Supreme Court said that a daughter being a coparcener by birth, the father need not have been alive when the amendment was passed for her to inherit her share of ancestral property or of personal property, unless it had been willed otherwise. Also, the woman’s share would not revert to the male heirs after her death, as was the case before 2005 when the daughter was bequeathed property.
The clarification is welcome, because it upholds the principle of equality in the Constitution and before the law. For ages, women have been left helplessly dependent on the kindness of men when deserted, widowed or unmarried. Gender bias in the law made easier the operations of misogyny in Indian society: it was common to cheat women of property, to turf them out of their homes, to send them off to Varanasi and, in some cases, go even further. The 2005 amendment shows how far the law has come since then. But the ideal may not always be easy to implement in real life. Apart from the fact that huge numbers of women are regularly deprived of their basic rights — from an equal share of nutrition to a dignified and violence-free life in their natal and marital homes — in spite of laws, other issues must be resolved as well. For example, the right to ancestral property must be seen in relation to the absolute right to streedhan, much of which is gifted by the parents — often in gold — during marriage, usually understood as a substitute for a share in ancestral property as well as insurance for the married daughter should things get difficult. The insistence on gender-equality in law is of overwhelming importance. Equality in society’s arrangements will depend on the nature and success of implementation.