The Supreme Court on Sunday ruled that the 2005 amendment in Hindu law will not give property rights to a daughter if the father died before the amendment came into force.
According to a report in The Indian Express: The court held that the amended provisions of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, could not have a retrospective effect despite being a social legislation and added that the father would have had to be alive on September 9, 2005, if the daughter were to become a co-sharer with her male siblings.
The act, which was established in 1956, did not give daughters the right to inherit the ancestral property and only gave them 'a right to sustenance' from a joint Hindu family.
After the 2005 amendment, women could ask for a share only if the property had been alienated or partitioned before December 20, 2004, the date the Bill was introduced.
However, the latest ruling makes it necessary for the father to have been alive on the day when the amendment was passed. This is expected to further restrict the right of women seeking an equal share in ancestral property.
"All that is required is that the daughter should be alive and her father should also be alive on the date of the amendment," the Indian Express quoted the apex court as saying.