Case Analysis Of Jijabai Gajre V. Pathan Khan & Ors: The Interpretation Of The Term “Natural Guardia

Case Analysis Of Jijabai Gajre V. Pathan Khan & Ors: The Interpretation Of The Term “Natural Guardian”

Harikushal Deshpande, Symbiosis Law School, Pune

ABSTRACT

The Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956, is the primary legislation that applies to matters of guardianship of Hindu children. Often, the jurisprudence in India contemplates and emphasises the importance of the Gita Hariharan case, which exhaustively dealt with the interpretation of the term ‘Natural Guardian’ and more specifically, inclusion and the way the phrase ‘after the father’ is construed under section 6(a) of the enactment. However, there no light thrown on the current case of Jijabai v. Pathan Khan, which was effectively the precursor to the Gita Hariharan case. Hence, the objective of this paper is to effectively analyse the importance of this case, and discuss foreign conventions and adjudications as well.