SC seeks Centre's response plea challenging Hindu Succession Act

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has asked the Union government to file its response to a petition challenging the constitutional validity of Sections 15 and 16 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956. On Tuesday, the bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud, Surya Kant, and Bela M. Trivedi granted three weeks for the counter affidavit to be filed, IANS reported.

The petition, which called the Sections highly discriminatory, was filed by Kamal Anant Khopkar through advocates Mrunal Dattatraya Buva and Dhairyashil D. Salunkhe.

The plea argued that Section 15 of the Act creates discrimination on the devolution of property in the case of a woman dying intestate when compared with the devolution of property of a man dying intestate, contending that discrimination in the provisions is only based on gender and not on family ties. The section prioritises the heirs of the husband over the parents

of the deceased if a Hindu woman dies without making a will. The plea contended that since the husband was alive at the time of her death, he took all her property without leaving any share for her own mother or father.

Section 8, on the other hand, gives preference to children/men, and blood relatives can only be inherited by men, not by women, the plea contended.