Women’s property right in the Mitakshara Hindu Joint Family. Discrimination against women prevails particularly about the law governing the inheritance or succession of property amongst the members of the joint Hindu family. This discrimination is so deep and systematic that it has placed women at the receiving end. Since time immemorial the framing of all property laws have been exclusively for the benefit of man, and woman has been treated as subservient, and dependent on male support.
A Hindu woman or girl will have equal property rights in joint Hindu family property along with other male relatives for any partition made in intestate succession after September 2005. The female inheritors would not only have the succession rights but also the same liabilities fastened on the property along with the male members. According to the new Section 6 of Hindu succession act, the daughter of a coparcener becomes a coparcener by birth in her rights and liabilities in the same manner as the son.
In a patrilineal system, like the Mitakshara School of Hindu law, a woman, was not given a birthright in the family property like a son. Under the Mitakshara law, on birth, the son acquires a right and interest in the family property. According to this school, a son, grandson and a great-grandson constitute a class of coparceners, based on birth in the family. No female is a member of the coparcenary in Mitakshara law.