Hindu Law and Muslim Law (Personal Law)
Scope
Hindu and Muslim personal law questions test marriage, divorce, maintenance, succession, guardianship and adoption. The exam expects you to distinguish codified Hindu law from uncodified Muslim personal law and to apply the correct statute.
Core rules
- Hindu Marriage Act 1955: section 5 conditions; sections 11 and 12 void and voidable marriages; section 13 divorce; section 13B mutual consent.
- Hindu Succession Act 1956: section 6 makes a daughter a coparcener by birth; the 2005 amendment applies to deaths on or after 9 September 2005, and Vineeta Sharma (2020) held the father need not be alive on that date.
- Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act 1956 governs adoption and maintenance.
- Muslim marriage is a civil contract; essentials are offer and acceptance, competence, and absence of prohibited relationship. Mehr is a contractual right.
- Talaq, khula and mubarat operate under personal law; the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act 2019 criminalises instant triple talaq.
- Maintenance is also available under BNSS section 144 (formerly CrPC section 125).
Worked example
A Hindu father dies in 2010 leaving ancestral property and a daughter. The daughter is a coparcener by birth under section 6. Her share is not limited to maintenance; she can seek partition. A son cannot exclude her by alleging that the father had orally gifted the property without a registered instrument.
Traps
Do not import Hindu coparcenary rules into Muslim law. A divorced Muslim woman's claim is governed by the 1986 Act and personal law, not automatically by BNSS section 144. A void marriage does not create succession rights.