Supreme Court rules tribal women and their heirs are entitled to equal property rights. Denial based on outdated customs violates constitutional equality.
New Delhi: Today, on July 17, in a significant judgment upholding gender equality, the Supreme Court of India has ruled that a tribal woman and her legal heirs are entitled to an equal share in her ancestral property.
This landmark decision marks a step forward in ensuring constitutional rights and gender justice, particularly for women in Scheduled Tribe communities.
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A bench comprising Justices Sanjay Karol and Joymalya Bagchi delivered the verdict on Thursday while hearing an appeal filed by the legal heirs of a woman belonging to a Scheduled Tribe.
The appellants had sought partition of property that originally belonged to their maternal grandfather. However, the trial court and the first appellate court had dismissed their plea, stating that the woman had no legal right over her father’s property.
The lower courts had held that there was no proof to show that the children of a woman heir could inherit property under the tribal customary laws.
This led the courts to conclude that the woman’s legal heirs were not entitled to a share in the ancestral estate.
However, the Supreme Court disagreed with this reasoning and strongly upheld the principles of justice and equality.
The bench said,
“When applying the principle of justice, equity and good conscience, the courts have to be mindful of the above and apply this otherwise open-ended principle contextually.”
The court highlighted that denying a woman or her heirs their rightful claim based only on the absence of explicit customary recognition is discriminatory.
The bench pointed out that,
“However, customs too, like the law, cannot remain stuck in time and others cannot be allowed to take refuge in customs or hide behind them to deprive others of their right.”
This ruling takes into account the broader constitutional context. According to the Supreme Court, denying women from Scheduled Tribes the right to inherit property is a direct violation of Article 14 of the Constitution, which guarantees equality before the law.
The court further observed,
“There appears to be no rational nexus or reasonable classification for only males to be granted succession over the property of their forebears and not women, more so in the case where no prohibition to such effect can be shown to be prevalent as per law.”
The court also referred to Article 15(1) which prohibits discrimination by the State on the basis of sex, among other factors. The bench stated,
“Article 15(1) states that the State shall not discriminate against any person on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. This, along with Articles 38 and 46, points to the collective ethos of the Constitution in ensuring that there is no discrimination against women.”
The Hindu Succession Act generally governs inheritance among Hindus, but under Section 2(2) of the Act, its provisions do not automatically apply to Scheduled Tribes unless the Government of India notifies otherwise.
This legal vacuum has led to uncertainty in matters of inheritance for tribal women, which the Supreme Court addressed by invoking constitutional principles of equality and justice.
The court emphasized that where customs are silent or ambiguous, the rights of women cannot be denied. In this case, there was no clear prohibition against daughters or their children inheriting property.
Denying the mother and, by extension, her heirs from receiving a share in the property simply because of her gender was unjustified.
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Accordingly, the bench concluded,
“Keeping with the principles of justice, equity and good conscience, read along with the overarching effect of Article 14 of the Constitution, the appellant-plaintiffs, being her legal heirs, are entitled to their equal share in the property.”
CASE TITLE:
Ram Charan v. Sukhram
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