6 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
That is one fundamental change which this Bill seeks to make. In other words, it universalises the law of inheritance by extending the Dayabhag rule to the territory in which the rule of the Mitakshara now operates.
Coming to the question of the order of succession among the heirs, there is also fundamental difference of a general character between the rule of the Mitakshara and the rule of the Dayabhag. Under the Mitakshara rule the agnates of a deceased are preferred to his cognates; under the Dayabhag rule the basis of heirship is blood relationship to the deceased and not the relationship based on cognatic or agnatic relationship. That is one change that the Bill makes; in other words, here also it adopts the rule of the Dayabhag in preference to the rule of the Mitakshara.
In addition to this general change in the order of succession to a deceased Hindu, the Bill also seeks to make four changes. One change is that the widow, the daughter, the widow of a pre-deceased son, all are given the same rank as the son in the matter of inheritance. In addition to that, the daughter also is given a share in her father’s property; her share is prescribed as half of that of the son. Here again, I should like to point out that the only new change which this Bill seeks to make, so far as the female heirs are concerned is confined to daughter; the other female heirs have already been recognised by the Hindu Women’s Right to Property Act of 1937. Therefore, so far as that part of the Bill is concerned, there is really no change in the Bill at all; the Bill merely carries the provisions contained in the Act to which I have made reference.
The second change which the Bill makes so far as the female heirs are concerned is that the number of female heirs recognised now is much larger than under either the Mitakshara or the Dayabhag.
The third change made by the (Bill is this that under the old law, whether the Mitakshara or the Dayabhag, a discrimination was made among female heirs, as to whether a particular female was rich or poor in circumstances at the death of the testator, whether she was married or unmarried, or whether she was with issue or without issue. All these consideration which led to discrimination in the female heirs are now abolished by this Bill. A woman who has a right to inherit