Mary Roy v. State of Kerala (1986)
AIR 1986 SC 1011
Case Summary
Facts
Mary Roy, a Syrian Christian woman from Kerala, challenged the provisions of the Syrian Christian law of inheritance which gave her brothers a larger share of her father’s property than she was entitled to. Under the personal law governing the Syrian Christian community, women were entitled to a smaller share of their father’s property compared to male heirs. Mary Roy, who was the daughter of a well-to-do family, argued that this provision was discriminatory and violated the constitutional guarantee of equality under Article 14 of the Indian Constitution.Mary Roy’s petition was based on the fact that the Kerala Christian Succession Act, which governed the inheritance rights of Syrian Christians, was outdated and unfairly discriminated against women. The law treated women as inferior to men in terms of property rights, a situation that Mary Roy believed was in violation of the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution. She sought equal rights to inheritance under the law and urged the Supreme Court to rule that the unequal treatment of women in inheritance matters was unconstitutional.
Issues
1. Whether the provisions of the Kerala Christian Succession Act, which allowed unequal inheritance rights for women, were unconstitutional.
2. Whether the law discriminated against women in violation of their fundamental rights to equality under Article 14 of the Constitution.
Relevant Articles
Article 14: Equality before the law.
Article 15: Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth.
Article 21: Protection of life and personal liberty.
Judgment
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Mary Roy, striking down the provisions of the Kerala Christian Succession Act that gave unequal inheritance rights to daughters. The Court declared that the Act violated the constitutional principles of equality and justice, as guaranteed by Article 14. The Court held that women, irrespective of their religious background, were entitled to the same rights as men regarding inheritance. The ruling ensured that women in the Syrian Christian community would receive equal shares of their father’s property, aligning the law with the constitutional mandate for gender equality.
-Harinya
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