Daughter act

Apex court ruling is a big step towards gender equality

The Supreme Court’s ruling that a Hindu woman’s right to be joint heir to ancestral property by birth closes a 15-year-old loophole in a progressive 2005 amendment. That ambiguity, on when the law was applicable, enabled Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) to continue to deprive women of coparcenary rights codified in the Mitakshara code of Hindu law, which was embedded in the Hindu Succession Act, 1956. The 2005 ruling was widely praised at the time since it finally allowed Hindu women a share in ancestral property, putting them on a par with their Christian and Muslim sisters. The definition of Hindu