In a setback to tribal women of Himachal Pradesh, the Supreme Court of India has overturned the decision of Himachal Pradesh High Court of -2015, which gave right to inherit ancestral property to tribal women of the state under the Hindu Succession Act.
A division bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra, recently ruled the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 does not extend to members of Scheduled Tribes, setting aside a HP High Court order allowing daughters in tribal areas of the state to inherit ancestral property under the Hindu Succession Act.
The women from tribal areas of Himachal Pradesh, especially from Lahaul –Spiti have been fighting for their right to inherit ancestral property under the Hindu Succession Act, being denied to them under the customary law prevalent in tribal areas.
Under the customary law the tribal women are deprived from inheriting the ancestral property and had approached the High Court to protect their right as per the provision of the Hindu Succession Act.
The Bench held the exclusion of tribal areas of the state under Section 2(2) of the Hindu Succession Act cannot be applied unless specifically notifies from exclusion by the Central government and no such notification has been made for tribal areas of Himachal Pradesh and thus the HP High Court order to extend the provision of the Act were unsustainable.
Accordingly, the bench ordered that “paragraph 63 of the impugned judgment/order dated 23.06.2015 containing directions is set aside to be expunged from the record.”
