The government awaits a consensus among community leaders for the proposed reform of the Hindu inheritance law as protests for and against the proposed reform continue.
Right groups, some Hindu scholars and organisations continue their campaign for the reform while Bangladesh National Hindu Grand Alliance, a coalition of some Hindu platforms, keeps opposing the move.
The recent wave of protests for and against the reform came up following the submission of a proposed Hindu Inheritance Bill to the law ministry in March by Citizens’ Initiative to Enact Hindu Law, a coalition of rights organisations, including Manusher Jonno Foundation, Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, Ain o Salish Kendra and Mahila Parishad.
The draft of the bill proposes equal rights to inheritance for the heirs irrespective of gender.
The Law Commission also submitted a proposed bill for equal inheritance rights for Hindus in 2012.
The government has, however, failed implement the commission proposal in the face of protests from some Hindu organisations and leaders.
‘We cannot pass a law, especially the Hindu property inheritance law, for the people who will not accept it,’ law minister Anisul Huq told New Age on Friday.
‘A consensus of the community is required to arrive at any decision,’ he said on the latest situation.
‘There are two opposing groups talking about different things. I will sit with them to discuss,’ he said.
‘I have been informed by seniors of the community that they will sit together and will find a solution and will come to me,’ the minister said, adding, ‘Until then, I will wait.’
Women’s right to inheritance is the most debated issue in the Hindu law reform.
The new bill proposes equal rights to the property based on the proximity of the relationship with the deceased.
It divides the heirs of a deceased into four groups. The first group includes son, daughter, spouse, mother, father and adopted son and daughter of the deceased. It also includes the son and daughter of a deceased’s children who died before the deceased.
The people in the first group will get an equal share of the property of the deceased. If a person inherits a property from his/her deceased son or daughter, the property will be equally distributed among the heirs of the son or daughter, says the proposed bill.
The second group of the heirs includes the deceased’s brothers, stepbrothers, sisters and stepsisters, it says. In the case of death of anyone of this group before the death of the deceased, their kids and widow will get the equal share of their inherited property.
The third group of heirs includes the deceased’s paternal and maternal uncles, step-uncles, aunts and step-aunts.
The fourth group of heirs includes the deceased’s cousins, children of the deceased’s step-uncles and step-aunts, according the proposed law.
It says that none beyond the list of heirs will inherit the property of a Hindu deceased.
According to the proposed law, any group of heirs will inherit the property if none of the previous group is alive.
It says that minors’ inherited property will be under the supervision of court-appointed guardians and the property will be transferred to them after they attain 18 years of age.
In the case of the death of anyone of a barren couple, the survived spouse and the father and mother of the deceased will get equal shares of the property.
In the case of the death of a barren couple, their property will be distributed equally among the individual’s brothers, stepbrothers, sisters and stepsisters, and the children of the deceased brothers and sisters, the proposed law says.
It says that all heirs will be able to gift, sell and use their inherited property on business or other purposes, but they will be able to transfer only half of the inherited property through will.
It proposes that a Hindu female, male and transgender will be the full owner of the inherited and self-acquired property.
A baby in the womb will have the right to inherit the father’s property from the date of the father’s death, the proposed bill says.
The spouse of a deceased will have no right to the deceased’s property if the spouse marries again during or before the distribution of the property, it says.
It states that individuals with physical disabilities will not be deprived of property rights and their property could be preserved to any of their heirs to be selected by a court.
Bangladesh National Hindu Grand Alliance secretary general Gobinda Chandra Pramanik said that they wanted no change to the Hindu inheritance law as proposed by the right groups.
‘They have no right to change the existing Hindu law,’ Gobinda, also a lawyer said, adding, ‘we have many priests and lawyers, who will definitely bring any changes, if required.’
Hindu women are transferred from one family to another permanently through marriage and get some ornaments and cash as property, he said.
‘Hindu women need property when they are alive and what will they do with the property after their death,’ said the lawyer.
An unmarried Hindu woman can enjoy father’s property as her brothers enjoy and a Hindu widow can also enjoy husband’s property as her sons do, he argued.
A Hindu widow can supervise the husband’s property and even can sell the property with permission from a court if there is a logical ground, he contended.
Bangladesh Hindu, Buddhist, Christian Unity Council general secretary Rana Das Gupta, however, said, ‘As Hindu women have no right to seek legal remedy to the courts to inherit property their husband or father under the existing Hindu law, I don’t see any problem in an enactment to address the issue.’
Rana, also a Supreme Court lawyer, said that a new law should be made during the remaining two years of the government’s tenure to ensure a widow’s full right to her deceased husband’s property, prohibit and penalise second marriage of a Hindu male and make registration of Hindu marriage mandatory.
Rana said that as a lawyer he could not provide any legal assistance to a Hindu woman under the existing ‘discriminatory’ Hindu law against her husband’s second marriage.
Hindu widows are subjected to humiliation by sons as they have no right to the deceased husband’s property and if a widow are allowed to inherit husband’s property, her son would look after her thinking that he would enjoy the mother’s property after her death, he said.
‘Stridhan’, the property gifted to a woman by her father at the time of her marriage, cannot be compared with the right to inherit the property of her husband and father.
Dhaka University Sanskrit department associate professor Mayna Talukdar said that the existing Hindu laws should be modernised and updated to address the discriminations against women.
Hindu women abandoned by the husband have no place to go as they cannot claim any right to the property of their father or husband, she said.
Hindu women can inherit their father’s property if he gifts her, but fathers having sons do not want to gift any of their property to the daughters, said Mayna, also the president of recently formed Bangladesh Hindu Law Reform Council.
Bangladesh Law Commission Chairman ABM Khairul Haque said that the commission in 2012 sent a draft law to the law ministry to address the discrimination against Hindu women. The report is still pending with the ministry.
BLAST advocacy adviser, Tajul Islam who represented the rights organisation in the drafting of the proposed law, said that the rights bodies proposed the reform following consultations with stakeholders as the British-era law discriminated against women.
Such a discriminatory law violates Articles 27 and 28 of the constitution that stipulates that ‘all citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law’ and ‘women shall have equal rights with men in all spheres of the State and of public life’, said Tajul Islam, also a Supreme Court lawyer.
According to the existing Hindu inheritance law, all daughters of a man do not have equal inheritance rights as unmarried daughters and married daughters with sons can inherit the father’s property while childless widows or daughters having no sons or with no possibility of having any son are deprived of the property, he said.
A Hindu widow is subjected to humiliation by her son as she cannot inherit her deceased husband’s property, he said.
Hindu widows can only maintain the husband’s property but cannot have any right to agricultural land of the deceased husband, contended the lawyer.
