DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 7
gets it by reason of the fact that she is declared to be an heir irrespective of any other considerations.
The last change that is made relates to the rule of inheritance in the Dayabhag. Under the Dayabhag the father succeeds before in preference to the mother; under the present Bill the position is altered so that the mother comes before the father.
So much for the order of succession of heirs to a deceased male Hindu. I now come to the provisions in the Bill which relates to intestate succession to females. As Members of the House who are familiar with Hindu Law will know, under the existing law the property held by a Hindu female falls into two categories; one is called her stridhan, and the other is called “woman’s property”. Taking first the question of stridhan, under the existing law stridhan falls into several categories; it is not one single category, and the order of succession to the stridhan of a female under the existing law varies according to the category of the stridhan; one category of stridhan has a different law of succession than another category and these rules are alike both as to Mitakshara as they are to the Dayabhag. So far as stridhan is concerned the present Bill makes two changes. The one change it makes is that it consolidates the different categories of stridhan into one single category of property and lays down a uniform rule of succession; there is no variety of heirs to the stridhan in accordance with the different categories of the stridhan —all stridhan is one and there is one rule of succession.
The second change which the Bill seeks to make with regard to the heirs is that the son also is now given a right to inherit the stridhan and he is given half the share which the daughter takes. Members will realise that in formulating this Bill and making changes in rules of succession, it is provided that while the daughter is getting half the share in the father’s property, the son is also getting half the share in the mother’s property so that in a certain sense the Bill seeks to maintain an equality of position between the son and the daughter.
Coming to the question of the “woman’s estate”, as members of the House will know under the Hindu Law where a woman inherits properly she gets only what is called a ‘life estate’ She can enjoy the income of the property, but she cannot deal with the corpus of the property except for legal necessity; the property must pass after