Adopted and Illegitimate Child Under Indian Christian Law: Revisiting Inheritance Rights

Abstract

The Indian Succession Act 1925 (ISA 1925) is based on common law principles and driven only by the principle of consanguinity; it does not provide for adoptive relationships or grant rights to illegitimate children thereby denying inheritance rights to both adopted and illegitimate children. The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000 (JJ Act 2000) was passed with the object of providing for proper care, protection and treatment of juveniles in conflict with the law and children in need of care and protection with the ultimate aim of their rehabilitation. Adoption, as one of many other modes of rehabilitation under the JJ Act 2000, and as affirmed by the Supreme Court in the Shabnam Hashmi case, reflect legislative and judicial support for making adoption a secular act and independent of the religion of the person adopting. Though the JJ Act 2000 grants the right to all Indian citizens, including Christians and Muslims, to adopt and confers the same rights as biological children have on the adopted child, it lacks clarity as to the application of succession law with respect to adopted children receiving inheritance rights in property. The question remains open as to the applicability of the ISA 1925 in respect of devolution of inheritance rights on children adopted by Christian parents under the JJ Act 2000 particularly when ISA 1925, which regulates the Christian law of succession, denies inheritance rights to an adopted child.