The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act 2005 will not apply to women whose father died before the amendement came in force, ruled the Supreme Court, effectively withdrawing such women’s right to equal share in their fathers’ property, reported The Indian Express.

The Supreme Court bench of justices Anil R Dave and Adarsh K Goel ruled that the amendment to the act cannot apply retrospectively and a daughter will become a co-sharer in inherited land from her father only if the father was alive on 9 September 2005.

Females are already ineligible for a share if the property was alienated or partitioned before 20 December 2004, the date the bill was introduced, and this judgment goes a step further to disqualify another class of women.

The bench overruled the view taken by some high courts that the amendment should be applied retrospectively as it is a social legislation.

The judges observed in the order that “the text of the amendment itself clearly provides that the right conferred on a ‘daughter of a coparcener’ is ‘on and from the commencement’ of the amendment Act. In view of plain language of the statute, there is no scope for a different interpretation than the one suggested by the text,” it was reported.