Family
Personal law by religion, with a secular alternative
Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Parsis each have their own marriage, divorce and succession law. The Special Marriage Act 1954 offers a religion-neutral route, and Goa alone has a uniform civil code.
Governing law
- Hindu Marriage Act, 1955
- Hindu Succession Act, 1956amended 2005
- Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937
- Special Marriage Act, 1954
- Indian Divorce Act, 1869
- Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019
In practice
The 2005 amendment gave Hindu daughters equal coparcenary rights in ancestral property, and the Supreme Court confirmed in 2020 that this applies regardless of whether the father was alive in 2005. Instant triple talaq was criminalised in 2019 following Shayara Bano. Uttarakhand enacted a state uniform civil code in 2024, and other states are considering the same, so the map is actively changing. Irretrievable breakdown is not a statutory ground, though the Supreme Court has granted divorce on it under Article 142.