Development and Impact of Hindu Personal Law in the Context of the Indian Constitution

Abstract

The Hindu Personal Law has been reformed in India to a great extent especially with the introduction of the Constitution in1950. The Hindu law has ancient origins, which are embedded in ancient texts and customs and religious practices, and has historically regulated the lives of the Hindu society in terms of marriage, succession, adoption, guardianship and maintenance. As soon as the constitutional structure founded on equality, justice, liberty and secularism was created, these old legal norms had to be reformed to fit into the principles of fundamental rights and social justice. The codification of Hindu personal laws in a sequence of legislative reforms, usually known as the Hindu Code Bills, was a breakthrough to the modernization of Hindu law. Other statutes, including the Hindu marriage act, 1955, Hindu succession act, 1956, Hindu adoption and maintenance act, 1956, Hindu minority and guardianship act, 1956, etc were also instrumental in redefining the family relations and the legal rights of the Hindu community. These were reforms that were meant to remove discrimination and offer more legal protection especially to women. The Indian Constitution has played a crucial role in the development of the Hindu personal law by bringing about constitutional values like equality before the law, nondiscrimination and the defense of individual interests. These principles have been further reinforced by judicial interpretation of personal laws by constitutional courts with a view of the fundamental rights. Still other changes like amendments of Hindu Succession (Amendment) act, 2005 that gave equal coparcenary rights to daughters are a testimony to the current move of aligning the traditional laws with constitutional ideals. This paper will discuss the history of the development of Hindu personal law, its constitutional consequences and its effect on social justice and gender equality. It also brings out the dilemmas of balancing religious traditions and the constitutional requirements. The paper concludes that application of progressive legal reform and judicial interpretation is still a necessity in order to see the Hindu personal law entirely reflective of the constitutional version of equality and justice in a democratic society.