Did Christian Women have Equal Property Rights before 1986?

We all know that Arundhati Roy won the Booker Prize in for the path breaking novel, God of Small Things. Decades before Arundhati stepped into the global limelight, Mary Roy, her mother, was perceived as a crusader who was ‘setting a bad example’ to Christian women in India. Simply put, a woman who did not fear to question laws.

Did Christian Women have Equal Property Rights before 1986?

Mary Roy began a tireless crusade for Christian women so that they enjoy equal property rights. In 1986, the Supreme Court held that Christian women are entitled to have an equal share in their father's property. This path-breaking judgment sent shock waves throughout the country. Till then, Christian women in Kerala were governed by the provisions under the 1916 Travancore-Kochi Christian Succession Act. Under this Act, a Christian daughter can inherit only one fourth of the share of the sons in her father’s property.

Why did the Supreme Court Ruling evoke anger in the Christian Community?

In Mary Roy v State of Kerala [AIR 1986 SC 1011], she filed a case against her brother. The case was filed to claim equal rights in her father’s property, the Supreme Court judgment gave a liberal interpretation that benefited the Christian women in Kerala and brought them within the ambit of the Indian Succession Act, 1921. Better still, the ruling granted equal rights to Christian women with retrospective effect!

Did Christian Women welcome the Supreme Court Ruling?

For ordinary Christian households, the retrospective clause became a great bone of debate and discontent. All past transactions pertaining to land and property became open to legal scrutiny and all titles to property that were derived from intestate succession were invalidated.
Despite tremendous social ostracism, clear disapproval from the Synod of the Christian Churches as well as increasing pressure from the society, Mary Roy fought her case.
Although the ruling in Mary Roy case is hailed as a clear victory in women’s’ rights, a majority of Christian women chose not to raise questions about having equal rights in their father’s property.

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