SC issues notice on PIL for gender-religion neutral inheritance and succession law

The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Centre on a PIL for making gender and religion-neutral uniform grounds of succession and inheritance for all citizens in country.

A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian sought a reply from the Union Ministries of Home Affairs, Law and Justice, and Women and Child Development on the petition by BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay.

The court, after hearing senior advocate Kiran Suri on behalf of Upadhyay, tagged the matter with a pending plea for uniform grounds of divorce.

The plea contended that succession and inheritance is the most crucial and pivotal affair and directly affects right to life, liberty and dignity, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.

"Discriminatory grounds of succession and inheritance not only reinforce patriarchal stereotypical notions but also contravene principles of gender justice, gender equality and dignity of women guaranteed under Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution," it said.

The petitioner claimed that gender gap in property ownership is the most important reason for gender inequity. There is no logic behind providing separate succession and inheritance schemes on the basis of gender and religion.

He claimed that implementing uniform grounds of succession and inheritance will strengthen constitutional ethos, as laid down in Part-III and IV of the Constitution and regarded as the heart and soul of the Constitution. Due to State’s inaction, even after 73 years of independence and 70 years of becoming sovereign socialist secular democratic republic, gender-religion biased personal laws still exist, he added.

Upadhyay pointed out "Though the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 entitled the daughter of coparcener to become, by birth, a coparcener in her own right just as a son would have, what is really saddening is that there has been no attempt to make other similar personal laws rational in spirit of Articles 14, 15, 21 and international conventions".

The petitioner said the cause of action was accrued on September 13, 2019 when the Supreme Court in Jose Paulo Coutinho Case reiterated the need of uniform civil code by giving shining example of Goa, but the Centre has failed to provide even gender neutral and religion neutral uniform grounds of succession and inheritance for all citizens.

He further pointed out existing personal laws are not only very complex and cumbersome but also against the goals of Preamble.

Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains are governed by the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 and Christians, Parsis and Jews are governed by the Indian Succession Act 1925. Similarly, Muslims are governed by the Shariat Act, in which the share of female heir is half of the male heirs, the plea said.