Hindu Law - Modern Hindu Law

Modern Hindu Law

With the formal independence of India from Britain in 1947, Anglo-Hindu law and the other major personal law system of the colonial period, the so-called Anglo-Muhammadan law (Islamic law), came under the constitutional authority of the new nation. The new constitution was officially adopted by India in 1950 and had a primary focus on securing equality in the social, political, and economic realms. Although there has been discussion that the Indian Constitution has a secular Hindu bias, an amendment to the constitution (42nd Amendment, 1976) formally inserted the word secular as a feature of the Indian republic.

In the early 1950s, contentious debates ensued over the so-called Hindu Code Bill, which had been offered in the Indian parliament, as a way to fix still unclear elements of the Anglo–Hindu law. Though a small minority suggested some kind of return to classical Hindu law, the real debate was over how to appropriate the Anglo–Hindu law. In the end, a series of four major pieces of legislation were passed in 1955–56 and these laws form the first point of reference for modern Hindu law: Hindu Marriage Act (1955), Hindu Succession Act (1956), Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act (1956), and Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (1956). Criticism of the document is based on the belief that the laws in the Hindu Code bill should apply to all citizens regardless of religious affiliation. Though these legislative moves purported to resolve still unclear parts of the Anglo-Hindu law, the case law and interpretive tradition of British judges and Indian judges in the British employ remained and remains crucial to the application of Modern Hindu Law.

There are no religious courts in India; rather all cases are adjudicated within the state district courts, presided over by state bureaucrats. In the countryside it is possible for there to still exist village tribunals that try community members according to custom and religious law; however this is not adjudicated or enforced by the state. State judges have no formal religious legal training and are thus required to apply Hindu law in an abbreviated version. It is possible for a Hindu judge to preside over a Muslim couple’s divorce, just as it is possible for a Christian to preside over the adoption case of a Hindu family. It is here where courts rely on the lawyers to argue the religious laws and advocate on behalf of their clients.

Modern Hindu Law as given by the Judicial System. Among the most notable aspects of Modern Hindu Law as established by the Indian judges' jurisprudence is to be mentioned the permissibility of oral partition of Hindu Family Property. Mutation of land records in government offices can be made on the basis of such an oral partition. (Source: Recent Civil Reports, year 2007, Volume No. 5, Page No. 694 - Judgment given by Bombay High Court - Aurangabad Bench - Case Title: Shekoji Bhimrao Vs. Motiram Maruti Maratha. - 2007 RCR 694 .)