Overview

• On July 17, 2025, the Supreme Court held that tribal women and their heirs are entitled to equal shares in ancestral property, overturning trial, appellate and High Court rulings.
• Justices Sanjay Karol and Joymalya Bagchi held that excluding tribal women violated Article 14 and invoked justice, equity and good conscience to remedy the statutory void created by the Hindu Succession Act’s exclusion of Scheduled Tribes.
• The court ruled that customary practices cannot be presumed to bar female inheritance and must be established by anyone opposing a property claim.
• In the absence of a codified tribal succession law, the judgment extended the Central Provinces Laws Act, 1875, to govern property disputes among Scheduled Tribes.
• The decision departs from the court’s cautious December 2024 stance by providing a binding legal standard against gender-based exclusion in tribal succession.