{"id":354195,"date":"2026-01-16T16:25:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T10:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=354195"},"modified":"2026-01-16T16:25:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T10:55:07","slug":"hindu-adoptions-and-maintenance-act-1956-hama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/hindu-adoptions-and-maintenance-act-1956-hama\/","title":{"rendered":"Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 (HAMA)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>News- <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In <\/span><b><i>Kanchana Rai v. Geeta Sharma &amp; Ors.<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the Supreme Court clarified maintenance rights of widowed daughters-in-law under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Rights of widowed daughters-in-law under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 (HAMA)<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Act recognises a widowed daughter-in-law as a dependant who can claim maintenance from her deceased father-in-law\u2019s estate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Key points<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Definition of dependant: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Court held that the expression \u201cany widow of his son\u201d in Section 21(vii) <\/span><b>of HAMA <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is clear and covers all widowed daughters-in-law.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>No distinction based on timing: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Court ruled that the timing of the son\u2019s death, whether before or after the father-in-law, is immaterial for claiming maintenance.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Duty of heirs: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under Section 22 <\/span><b>of HAMA<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, heirs who inherit the estate of a deceased Hindu are legally bound to maintain all dependants from that estate.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Article 14 of the Constitution: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Court observed that denying maintenance based on timing of widowhood is arbitrary and violates the right to equality.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Article 21 of the Constitution: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Court held that denial of maintenance would expose widowed women to destitution and social marginalisation, offending the right to life with dignity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Reference to Manusmriti and moral obligation:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The Court explicitly referred to the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Manusmriti<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to underline the <\/span><b>moral duty<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to maintain dependants and linked statutory interpretation with ethical responsibility.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>About Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 (HAMA)<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Act codifies the law relating to adoption and maintenance among <\/span><b>Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs.<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was <\/span><b>enacted in 1956<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to <\/span><b>replace diverse customary practices<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with a uniform legal framework.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News- In Kanchana Rai v. Geeta Sharma &amp; Ors., the Supreme Court clarified maintenance rights of widowed daughters-in-law under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956. About Rights of widowed daughters-in-law under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 (HAMA) The Act recognises a widowed daughter-in-law as a dependant who can claim maintenance from her&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/hindu-adoptions-and-maintenance-act-1956-hama\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 (HAMA)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10357,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,1760,12056],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-354195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-polity-and-nation","category-knolls-daily-factly-articles","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10357"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354195\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}