Maintaining that the defendants have failed to prove general binding custom among the Oraon tribe that females were excluded from inheritance, the Jharkhand High Court has held that the women of the tribe have a right in paternal property.
A Oraon tribeswoman Prabha Minz had approached a Ranchi Court demanding justice after being denied her due share in paternal property but her petition was rejected, citing customary laws. She then appealed to the Jharkhand High Court. But, even here her first appeal was turned down on similar grounds. Thereafter, she made a second appeal before the High Court. The hearing of the petition was completed on February 22, but the order was kept reserved.
On Friday (April 22), setting aside the judgment and decree passed by the Courts below, Justice Gautam Kumar Choudhary, in his order ruled that as none of the parties have been able to prove that the customary laws denied paternal property rights to Oraon women, the petitioner ought to be given due share in her paternal property.
“The Courts have refrained to uniformly or consistently recognize the customary law of inheritance excluding female from inheritance so as to hold that they have acquired binding force of general customary law. In every case the claim of title is to be decided on the pleading and proof of customary law regarding the prevailing custom.
“Ideally it is high time that customary law of succession should be codified and be given a statutory shape. But in the meantime each case has to be judged individually regarding the applicable custom. This substantial question of law is accordingly answered in favour of the plaintiff,” the High Court said.
“This judicial order also focuses on unease to accept and recognize such an inequitable custom,” averred a judicial activist, while quoting and interpreting the judgement.
The judicial order says that the sisters and daughters of the Oraon tribe too are entitled to due share in their ancestral property, he said. The cumulative effect of this judicial order demonstrates and reflects beyond doubt that a general customary law of inheritance among Oraon and Santhal tribes has not crystallized in a uniform general customary law that “naturally” deprives female heirs their right of inheritance, he added.
