Don’t demean Hindu society structure: SC

PLEAS AGAINST SUCCESSION ACT PROVISIONS

- Utkarsh Anand

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday stressed that it ‘would tread carefully while examining challenges to provisions of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, cautioning that it would be “wary of shattering the Hindu social structure and its basic tenets that have been in existence for thousands of years” merely because some cases present “hard facts” of parents or siblings of a woman being deprived of her property.

“Do not demean the structure of the Hindu society that we already have...As a court, we are putting you to caution. There isa Hindu social structure and you do not bring it down...We do not want by our judgment to break something which has been there for thousands of years,” observed abench of justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahadevan, as it heard a clutch of petitions challenging the gender-based scheme of succession under the 1956 Act. The impugned provisions prioritise a woman's husband’s family over her parents and siblings in inheritance matters if she dies intestate.

The bench underlined that while women's rights were important, there had to be “a balance between social structure and giving rights to women.” Pending consideration of the broader issues, the court referred the parties before it to the Supreme Court's mediation centre to explore settlement and fixed November II for further hearing.

During the hearing, the bench repeatedly emphasised that while some disputes before it involved difficult family circumstances, courts must avoid allowing “hard facts” to dictate the making of “bad laws.”