Vol. 3 No. issue 1,March, page 2125-2142 (2026): WOMEN’S COPARCENARY RIGHTS UNDER THE HINDU SUCCESSION (AMENDMENT) ACT, 2005: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF JUDICIAL INTERPRETATION

A major amendment in the authorization of Hindu women came with The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 which provided that a daughter in a family under the Hindu Mitakshara system of co-parceners would be given rights on property equivalent to her brothers. Prior to the amendment there was a lack of women's participation in coparcenary property and no participation in the traditional structure of coparcenary based on the birth. This work focuses on one aspect which is critical to the development and judicial interpretation of women's coparcenary rights after the Amendments in 2005. The objective of this study is to analyse the amendments made by the Amendment, what it means for the daughters and how the courts have interpreted the concepts of coparcenary, the major problems arising in relation to retrospective operation of the law and how well the judicial positivism is achieving gender equalisation in relation to property rights. The research design used is a qualitative research design and secondary legal and academic materials are used. Statutory provisions, judicial decisions, legal commentaries and opportunities for debate as raised in the literature are analysed thematically. The results have shown that the interpretation by the judges has played a key role in clarifying the scope and use of the amended law. Prior judgments left unclear whether the fathers had to be alive on the date of the Amendment, but eventually, courts gave in to the new interpretation of a more gender-equal one. The study finds that the Amendment is a crucial step in women's rights to property, especially following judicial interpretation. But social practices and family conflicts and their awareness remain relevant to realising such rights.