Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, Hindu Succession Act, 1956 and Personal Law
What the exam tests
This domain tests the validity of Hindu marriages, matrimonial reliefs, and the devolution of property, especially the daughter's coparcenary status created in 2005. Answers must respect the difference between void, voidable and valid marriages and between testamentary and intestate succession.
Core rules
- Section 5 HMA sets the conditions: monogamy, valid consent, age limits, and prohibited degrees. Breach of monogamy makes the marriage void under Section 11; the other breaches do not.
- Section 12 makes a marriage voidable for impotence, consent obtained by force or fraud, or pregnancy by another man at the time of marriage.
- Section 13 lists fault grounds; Section 13(1A) allows dissolution where a decree of restitution or judicial separation is not complied with for one year; Section 13B is divorce by mutual consent, where the six-month cooling period may be waived (Amardeep Singh v. Harveen Kaur).
- Section 24 awards maintenance pendente lite; Section 25 permanent alimony; these are independent of Section 144 BNSS maintenance.
- HSA Section 6 makes a daughter a coparcener by birth. In Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma the Supreme Court held that the father need not be alive on 9 September 2005.
- Section 14 HSA converts a female Hindu's property into her absolute property, subject to the exceptions recognised in V. Tulasamma.
Worked example
A grandfather governed by Mitakshara law dies without a will, survived by a son and a daughter. The daughter, though born before 2005, is a coparcener by birth under Section 6 as amended. In a partition suit filed in 2022, she takes a share equal to the son's, not merely a share in her father's individual estate.
Traps
Confusing void with voidable marriages; assuming Section 6 applies to property devolving by testamentary succession; and forgetting Section 15(2) HSA, under which property inherited from a parent reverts to that parent's heirs.