Legal provisions of the Hindu Widows Remarriage Act, 1856

There was a time when no widow in Indian society was permitted to have second marriage unless it was authorized by the then prevailing customs. However, regardless of the possibility that allowed to do the same, it involved the relinquishment or stripping of the widow’s home as there was settled standard of Hindu law that chastity was a condition point of reference for a widow to inherit her spouse’s legacy unless this had been approved prior by the spouse. Remarriage of widows was sanctioned in all cases by the Hindu Widows Remarriage Act, 1856.

The Act gave that all rights and interests which a widow had in her expired spouse’s name. This Act of 1856 was cancelled by the Hindu Widows Remarriage (Repeal) Act, 1983 on the suggestion of the 81st Report of the Law Commission of India. She could however succeed to the moveable and immovable properties of her child or daughter by her first marriage who died after her second marriage.

The Hindu Women’s Right to Property Act, 1937 gave better rights to Hindu women in terms of property, but conferred only a limited estate, which was held by her for her lifetime and afterwards reverted to her husband’s heirs. However, once that limited right became an absolute right by virtue of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, the question of divesting the property on remarriage does not arise. Under Section 14(1) of that Act, the widow’s limited estate is automatically enlarged into an absolute interest (full ownership).

It is now judicially settled that once a widow has succeeded to the property and obtained an absolute right under the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, she cannot be divested of this right on remarriage. Keeping in mind the end goal to comprehend the law identifying with widow’s property rights, we have to like that legacy and property right are represented by the individual law of the religious groups and contrast from zone to range even around groups and ranks.

The Hindu Succession Act, 1956 brought about several changes in the law of inheritance. A Hindu male is entitled to bequeath by will his interest in the coparcenary or inherited property. If he dies without making a will (intestate), his share is divided among his heirs.

As originally enacted, the 1956 Act did not give daughters the same coparcenary rights as sons in ancestral property. This was corrected by the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, which amended Section 6 to make a daughter a coparcener in her own right, by birth, in the same manner as a son, with the same rights and liabilities in the coparcenary property. The Supreme Court in Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma (2020) clarified that this right is conferred by birth and applies retroactively: a daughter is a coparcener regardless of whether her father was alive on 9 September 2005 (the date the amendment came into force).

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