Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005: A Step Towards Formal Or Substantive Equality?
- IJLLR Journal
- Dec 29, 2025
- 2 min read
Vanessa Thukral, O.P. Jindal Global University
ABSTRACT
The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 was an initiative to eliminate gender discrimination from the Hindu personal laws of inheritance. Giving daughters an equal right as sons in inheriting, was a way to ensure that succession laws can be aligned with the constitutional ideals of equality as under Article 14 and 15 of the Indian Constitution. The amendment is perceived as a big step towards attaining gender justice, but the real question that still lingers is whether it could achieve substantive equality or is it just a step ahead towards formal equality.
This paper tries to critically examine whether the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 transcended the constitutional ideals of equality into the real-world application so as to have some positive impact for the women. The major emphasis of the paper is on evaluating the amendment, through a theoretical framework on formal and substantive equality, in light of the legislative intent and the judicial precedents. The paper argues that although formal equality may have been attained through this amendment, substantive equality lags far behind.
The judicial approach has been illustrated through the evolving opinions of the courts by various precedent cases, which displays how the interpretation of the amendment and ambiguities revolving around it have been approached by the court of law. Despite the clear stance taken by the courts, several factors, such as familial arrangements, procedural intricacies, testamentary freedom and the deep-rooted patriarchal norms in society, continue to undermine the effective implementation of these inheritance rights.
The paper finally concludes that the amendment is a progressive step towards attaining gender justice, which it accomplished on a formal level. But the substantive equality is still illusionary due to the societal structures and the loopholes in the law. There is a need for more legal reforms in order to ensure that this right can actually be used for the empowerment of women.
