New Delhi: The Law Commission has recommended a series of amendments to the Indian Succession Act to allow Christian women to get equal rights in the property of their deceased children.
In its report ‘Sections 41 to 48 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 Proposed Reforms’ tabled in Parliament on Friday, the Commission said it considered the present provisions ‘unfair’ towards Christian women and termed them prejudicial and unfair to status of women.
The recommendations come against the backdrop of a number of representations from various Christian organisations inviting attention of the government on the issue.
“A plain reading of the provisions built in Sections 42 to 46 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 reveal how the scheme envisioned therein incorporates a preferential approach towards men and is unfair and unjust towards Christian women,” Law Commission chairman Justice A.P. Shah (Retd) wrote.
Referring to rules in the Act regarding distribution where there are no lineal descendants of the person who dies without making a valid will (intestate), the report said, “These provisions are unfair towards Christian women.”
