Property rights, tribals and the gender parity gap, Pg6

Key Highlights:

• The Supreme Court of India on July 17, 2025, in Ram Charan and Ors. vs Sukhram and Ors., highlighted the exclusion of daughters from ancestral property as a violation of their fundamental right to equality.
• The judgment brings focus to the issue of tribal women's property rights and the existing gender disparity in inheritance laws.
• Customary laws in Scheduled Five Area States often deny land inheritance rights to women in ancestral properties, despite their significant contributions to agriculture.
• The Jharkhand High Court in Prabha Minz Daughter Of Late Saran Linda vs (A) Martha Ekka Wife Of Late Ajit Ekka (2022), ruled in favor of property rights for women of the Oraon tribe.

Detailed Insights:

• The case involved the legal heirs of a Scheduled Tribe (ST) woman seeking partition of property, highlighting the denial of an equal share based on customary laws.
• The Chhattisgarh High Court granted the legal heirs an equal share, stating that denying female heirs property rights under the guise of customs exacerbates gender discrimination.
• In Madhu Kishwar and Ors. vs State Of Bihar and Ors. (1996), the Supreme Court initially hesitated to strike down customary laws excluding women from inheritance to avoid disrupting existing legal frameworks.
• Data from the All India Report on Agriculture Census 2015-16 indicates that only 16.7% of ST women possess land, compared to 83.3% of ST men.
• Concerns about land alienation due to tribal women marrying non-tribal men are often cited as a reason to deny women land inheritance rights.
• The Supreme Court took a positive step towards gender parity in property rights among tribal women in Kamala Neti (Dead) Thr. Lrs. vs Special Land Acquisition Officer on December 9, 2022.
• A potential solution involves creating a separate Tribal Succession Act or codifying tribal laws to address the exclusion of tribal women from the Hindu Succession Act, 2005.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Customary Laws: Practices and beliefs that have become established traditions of a community and are treated as law.
• Intestate Succession: The distribution of property when a person dies without a will.
• Scheduled Tribes (ST): Communities officially designated as historically disadvantaged and entitled to special protections and rights.
• Land Alienation: The transfer of land ownership from tribal communities to non-tribal individuals or entities.