Another important decision of the Supreme Court has come regarding women’s rights. The Supreme Court has said that even among tribals, women also have a right in inheritance. Women from tribal families also have equal rights as men in disputes related to inheritance.
Depriving women of inheritance is unfair and discriminatory. This is a violation of women’s right to equality. Although the Hindu Succession Act does not apply to Scheduled Tribes, it does not mean that tribal women should automatically be deprived of inheritance. The bench said it has to be seen whether any prevalent practice exists, which restricts the tribal right of women to share in ancestral property.
Depriving inheritance rights is a violation of Article 15 of the Constitution.
Justice Sanjay Karol, while writing the decision, said that the parties in this case could not establish the existence of any such practice which deprives women of inheritance. Even if there is such a practice, it will have to evolve. Like law, customs too cannot be bound by time. Others cannot be allowed to take refuge in customs or hide behind them to deprive others of their rights. Denying succession rights on the basis of gender is a violation of Article 15 of the Constitution, which guarantees equality before law, and there is no justification for allowing succession only to male heirs.
This only increases gender division and discrimination – SC
The judgment also states that in the absence of any specific tribal custom or codified law restricting women’s rights, courts must exercise ‘justice, equity and good judgment’ otherwise denying property rights to the woman (or her) heirs only perpetuates the gender divide and discrimination which the law should address.
Denial of share in property on the basis of gender is unconstitutional: SC
A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and Joymalya Bagchi had heard a case in which the appellants, being the legal heirs of a Scheduled Tribe woman named Dhaiya, were seeking a share in her maternal grandfather’s property. Though the male heirs of the family contested this claim, saying that women are excluded from inheritance under tribal customs, setting aside these arguments, the judgment written by Justice Karol emphasized that any Equality should be maintained in the absence of restrictive practices. Denying a share in property to a tribal woman or her heirs merely on the basis of gender is unconstitutional. Furthermore, it was found that the trial court had erred in requiring the appellants to prove a practice allowing inheritance by women instead of requiring the opposite party to prove a bar to such inheritance.
Of course this practice may be silent, but it is a violation of the right to equality – SC
Denying a Dhaiya (tribal woman) a share in her father’s property, when the practice is silent, would violate her right to equality with her cousins, her brothers or her legal heirs. The court said that it appears that there is no logical connection or proper classification in the fact that only men are given inheritance on the property of their ancestors and women are not given it. Especially in a case where no such prohibition can be shown to be prevalent as per law. Article 15 (1) states that the State shall not discriminate against any person on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. This points to the collective ethos of the Constitution, which ensures that there is no discrimination against women. The court accepted the appeal and granted Dhaiya an equal share in the property, being his legal heir.