SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The subject of the thesis has been dealt with under ten chapters. In each of the chapters the Hindu law has been discussed in its various aspects, including the Smriti law on the subject, the views of the commentators, the judicial decisions and the position under the Anglo- Hindu law, the present law under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act 1956, and compared with the corresponding English and other laws on the subject. I have considered or referred to about seven hundred judicial decisions and also given ray own views and suggestions wherever appropriate The first chapter deals, among other toxics, with the object of adoption, and the sources and history of the Hindu and English Adoption laws. The next few chapters deal with the comparative effects of adoption in the two legal systems in the child's natural and adoptive families and the adoptee's right to succeed to relations in the maternal and paternal families of the adoptive father. Chapter Vi deals exhaustively with the important question of the doctrine of 'relation back' from its inception to the latest Supreme Court decisions and the views of different writers on the subject and my own. Other topics- include ante-adoption agreements and the effect of adoption in forms other than the dattaka. I have shown the close similarity between the present day Hindu and English laws of adoption especially in so far as the effects of the institution are concerned as compared to many other countries where the laws are not as strictly logical. I have also discussed why the adoption of daughters should have been recognised even under the Pre-HAMA period. In the concluding chapter I have discussed various current problems especially the necessity of having an adoption law in India for communities other than Hindus also, who at present have no legally recognised adoption law. I have suggested that there should be, for a period, a two-fold legal institution of adoption, one based upon the Sastra (the Dattaka form) and available to Hindus and another of a purely secular kind available to all persons subject to Indian law in this regard, including the Hindus. This appears to me to be the most feasible course to be adopted under the present circumstances in India.