Overview
- Parties must undergo pre‑litigation mediation for parental claims to the estates of Hindu women who die intestate, with any settlement to be treated as a court decree and processed through legal services authorities or mediation centres.
- The Court declined to decide the validity of Section 15(1)(b) and left constitutional questions open for affected parties to raise in proper proceedings.
- The bench appealed to women likely covered by Section 15(1) to execute wills under Section 30 to avoid disputes over self‑acquired property.
- The PIL by advocate Snidha Mehra sought to strike down Section 15(1)(b) as arbitrary and violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.
- Additional Solicitor General K. M. Nataraj argued that only aggrieved parties can mount such challenges and stressed that the Act already allows women to freely bequeath property by will.