DAUGHTERS AS COPARCENERS: A SOCIO-LEGAL ASSESSMENT OF GENDER EQUALITY IN HINDU SUCCESSION

This article studies how daughters have been involved in the Mitakshara Hindu joint family system as coparceners. The writer examines whether recognition of daughters' statutory right has led to their being coparceners in light of past developments. The writer traces the exclusion of women from coparcenery beginning with the classical texts of the doctrine and the provisions of the Hindu Succession Act, discusses Section 6, which was modified in 2005 and follows the decisions of the Supreme Court dealing with the question from Prakash v. Phulavati and Danamma v. Amar to Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma. The paper analyses the amendments in light of the Constitution of India, the agrarian census, the principles of devolution, and its own findings based on econometric analysis. The author concludes that the judgment in the case of Vineeta Sharma fulfils the requirement of development of the meaning of equal rights at birth but identifies some serious shortfalls in terms of exclusion of Scheduled Tribes, relinquishment of share informally by daughters, the state of land records, and the residual discriminatory provisions in Section 15.