The Supreme Court has asked the Union government to consider amending the Hindu Succession Act (HSA) which disqualifies a scheduled tribe (ST) woman from being considered on par with male counterparts in matters of her share in the paternal property.
- The top court said when the daughter belonging to the non-tribal is entitled to equal share in the property of her father, there is no reason to deny such a right to the daughter of tribal communities.
- As per Section 2(2) of the Hindu Succession Act, the Hindu Succession Act will not be applicable to members of the Scheduled Tribes.
About Hindu Succession Act, 1956
- The Mitakshara school of Hindu law codified as the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 governed succession and inheritance of property but only recognised males as legal heirs.
- The law applied to everyone who is not a Muslim, Christian, Parsi or Jew by religion.
- Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains and followers of Arya Samaj, Brahmo Samaj are also considered Hindus for the purposes of this law.
- In a Hindu Undivided Family, several legal heirs through generations can exist jointly.
- Traditionally, only male descendants of a common ancestor along with their mothers, wives and unmarried daughters are considered a joint Hindu family. The legal heirs hold the family property jointly.
- Women were recognised as coparceners or joint legal heirs for partition arising from 2005.
- Section 6 of the Act was amended that year to make a daughter of a coparcener also a coparcener by birth “in her own right in the same manner as the son”.
- The law also gave the daughter the same rights and liabilities “in the coparcenary property as she would have had if she had been a son”.
