The inheritance property rights of the children born out of void marriages

The issue of women’s rights to property under Hindu law has always been an argumentative one. Prior, women dependably had constrained rights to property, which returned again to the spouse’s siblings on the off chance if she didn’t have children. A Hindu lady could appreciate the property in her lifetime, yet she couldn’t will it to anybody. Essentially, under standard Hindu law there was no bar to a man entering a second marriage.

On the other hand, the standard law was systematized by the institution of the Hindu Marriage Act in 1956, which proclaimed as void a second marriage throughout the subsistence of the first.

Under Hindu law, certain conditions must be satisfied for a substantial marriage to be solemnized between two people. The principal necessity is that neither of the parties should have a companion living at the time of the marriage. The second condition is that the parties are equipped for giving substantial assent and are of sound personality and don’t endure any mental issue or repetitive episodes of madness. People who are sapindas to one another or fall inside disallowed connections are likewise obstructed from wedding, unless allowed by custom or utilization.

In the present case, the Supreme Court engaged with the question of inheritance under Hindu law by children of a marriage that was void due to the subsistence of an earlier marriage, in the case of Vuggina Pydamma and her two children. The judgment delivered in May 2006 is reported as Bhogadi Kannababu versus Vuggina Pydamma 2006 (5) SCALE 642, and though given in the context of a second marriage is applicable to children of a marriage that may be void on any other grounds, under Hindu law.

The concept of void and voidable marriages came into our statute through English law. At the time the Hindu Marriage Act was passed, English law conferred the status of legitimacy on children of annulled voidable marriages. This was incorporated in Section 16 of the Hindu Marriage Act and an attempt was made to extend it to children of void marriages. However, the extension was worded in such a way as to confer legitimacy on children of void marriages that were declared null and void. Thus, children of marriages where there has been no declaration that the marriage is null and void remained illegitimate.

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