Educator and women’s rights activist Mary Roy passed away on September 1 in Kottayam, Kerala.
- She was best known for the “Mary Roy” case, the prolonged legal battle that ensured equal property rights for women from Kerala’s Syrian Christian families.
- Roy, who died at the age of 89, was the mother of Man Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy.
Key points
- Denied equal rights to her deceased father’s property, Mary Roy sued her brother, George Isaac, marking the beginning of a case that is seen as a milestone in ensuring gender justice in India.
- Under the Travancore Succession Act, women belonging to the Syrian Christian community had no right to inherit property.
- The petition filed before the apex court said that the Travancore Succession Act violated Article 14 of the Constitution by discriminating on the basis of gender.
- The Supreme Court in its 1986 judgment upheld the supremacy of the Indian Succession Act, 1925.
- A Bench comprising Chief Justice of India P N Bhagwati and Justice R S Pathak ruled that in case the deceased parent has not left a will, the succession will be decided as per the Indian Succession Act, 1925 which will also apply to the Indian Christian Community in the erstwhile state of Travancore.
- The verdict put an end to the socially-sanctioned practice in Syrian Christian families to deny women their rightful share in inheritance.
- Indian Succession Act 1925 does not discriminate on the grounds of gender.
