Who Are Dependents under Hindu Law

Article 22 § 1 provides that the heirs of a Hindu are obliged to maintain the dependants of the deceased from the estate they inherited from the deceased. Thus, this obligation must be fulfilled only by the inherited assets and is therefore not a personal obligation. Article 22(2) provides that a maintenance creditor who has not received a share is entitled to maintenance by testamentary or legal succession from those who take over the estate. Under Article 22(3), the liability of each heir is proportional to the succession he has acquired. Under Article 22, paragraph 4, a person who is himself dependent may not be required to pay maintenance if this amount has the effect of reducing his share below what is necessary for maintenance. The adopted child may be male or female. The adopted child must belong to the Hindu category. The adoptee must also be unmarried; However, if the particular custom or custom is applicable to the parties concerned, the adopted person may be married. The child may not be fifteen years of age or older, unless it is custom or use is for the parties concerned. Adoption can only take place if no child of the same sex of the adopted child is still living at home. In particular, if a son is adopted, the adoptive father or mother can no longer have a legitimate or adoptive son in the home. [3] This Act applies to Hindus and all those considered under the umbrella term Hindus, which includes: The Act also does not apply to adoptions that took place before the effective date.

However, it applies to any marriage that took place before or after the coming into force of the Act and, furthermore, if the wife is not Hindu, the husband is not obliged to pay maintenance under this Act under modern Hindu law. [1] Subsection 23(3) simplifies the procedure for determining the amount of support to be paid to other dependants. It stipulates that the amount of the payment to be made must be made according to the following: Article 21 of the Act stipulates that the parents shall designate the following relatives of the deceased in connection with this Act: It is the religious, moral and legal duty of parents to settle the debts of the deceased before using the money for their maintenance. The Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act (HAMA) was enacted in India in 1956 as part of the Hindu Code Bills. Other laws enacted during this period included the Hindu Marriage Act (1955), the Hindu Succession Act (1956) and the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act (1956). All these laws were drafted under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru and were aimed at codifying and normalizing the current Hindu legal tradition. The Adoption and Maintenance Act 1956 deals specifically with the legal procedure for the adoption of children by a Hindu adult and the legal obligation of a Hindu to pay «subordination» to various family members, including their wife or parents, and their parents-in-law. Having a male child was important in the pursuit of his ancestry and was important in performing his final rituals. It was believed that a male child would bring moksha.

The idea was not just to have a son, but a son who should carry a reflection of the natural son. A girl could not be adopted under ancient Hindu law. Whenever a widow adopted a son, he was always considered her husband`s son. The adoption was on the anniversary of her husband`s death. This has been called the theory of upstream relations. A Hindu man wishing to adopt a girl must have the capacity to adopt a child as required by section 7 of the Act, and section 11 (iii) stipulates that he must be at least 21 years older than the girl to be adopted. Article 10 stipulates that no one may be adopted if the following four conditions are met: (i) to be Hindu; (ii) it has not yet been adopted; (iii) he is not married, unless there is a custom or practice applicable to the parties authorizing the adoption of married persons; and (iv) he has not yet attained the age of fifteen, unless there is a custom of the parties which permits the adoption of persons over fifteen years of age. However, there are certain conditions that the child must meet after adoption, such as: According to this law, only Hindus are allowed to adopt if they meet certain criteria.

The first states that the adopter has the right to do so (according to this law, this would mean that he is Hindu). From the moment of adoption, the child is under the legal guardianship of the new adoptive parent and should therefore enjoy all the benefits of these family ties. It also means that this child is cut off from all legal benefits (property, inheritance, etc.) of the family that gave him up for adoption. [3] It is clear from the above that although Indian Hindu women are granted improved rights over time, the rights they have do not coincide with the rights required. In this context, the Indian judicial system is perceived as ambivalent. This conclusion is reiterated in Masilamani Mudliar vs. Idol of Sri Swaminathswami Thirukoli, where the Supreme Court found that personnel laws, insofar as they violate fundamental rights, are nothing but null and void. 11. In February 2014, a chamber of the Supreme Court of Punjab and Haryana, composed of the Honourable Justice Paramjeet Singh in Avtar Singh vs. Jasbir Singh, identified the gap in HAMA, 1956 regarding the property and alimony rights of Hindu wives. In this case, the plaintiff was the wife of a mentally ill man who had demanded from her stepfather 1/4 of the family`s property as maintenance for herself, her husband and her minor sons. This share had been made available to him by his father-in-law through a family settlement before the Gram Panchayat; But the woman was later forcibly deprived of the land by her father-in-law and brother-in-law.

Since the said property had been voluntarily handed over by the stepfather to his son and family through a family settlement, the essential legal question concerning the legal obligations of the stepfather in such situations was not raised and the case was decided on the basis of whether the said family colony had to be registered before the Gram Panchayat in order to be valid.