Matrimonial Rights & Child Rights | Family Law

The blog presents the basic theory of matrimonial rights and child rights that forms the introduction of Family Law in India. This can be useful for students preparing for Law and other Competitive Exams.

Q1. What is the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 ?

Ans. When two persons marry they get mutual right of inheritance. Under the Hindu family, if a male or female dies without making a will, then the property is distributed as per rules of succession prescribed in the Hindu Succession Act, 1956.
Under this Act both the husband and wife are included in the category of most preferred heirs. Both of them can make a will of his or her own property and give to anyone. But the ancestral property has to be disposed off according to the Hindu Succession Act, 1956.

Q2. What is a Stridhan ?

Ans. Although the property and gifts received at or about the time of marriage belongs jointly to the husband and wife, there are certain properties belonging to each of them. In Hindu law, any property or gifts given to wife by her parents and in-laws exclusively belongs to her. She can deal with it the way she likes and is called as Stridhan.

Q3. What is a Dower ?

Ans. Under Muslim law, a dower is a sum of money or property that the wife is entitled to receive from the husband in consideration of marriage. It is in fact an obligation imposed upon the husband as a mark of respect for the wife. The dower belongs exclusively to wife.

Q4. Who is a minor ?

Ans. A minor is a person who has not completed the age of 18 years under the Indian Majority Act, 1875.

Q5. What is the age of marriage ?

Ans. With respect to the age of marriage, the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936 and the Christian Marriage Act, 1872 has prescribed the age of 18 years for girls and 21 years for boys.
In Muslim law, marriageable age is not defined in number but coincides with puberty.

Q6. What is the punishment imposed for child marriage ?

Ans. The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 has made the child marriage voidable. In case of contravention of any provision of the Act, the punishment includes rigorous imprisonment of 2 years or fine, which may extend upto 1 lakh rupees.

Q7. What are the rights of child conferred by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 ?

Ans. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 confers upon the children all those basic human rights that will enable them to achieve full potential. These rights include civil, economic, cultural and political rights.

• Civil rights include protection from torture, maltreatment and deprivation of liberty.
• Economic rights include the right to ensure proper development and protection from exploitation at work.
• Social rights include the right to the highest attainable standard of health services, protection from sexual exploitation and regulation of adoption.

Q8. What are the salient features of Right to Education ?

Ans. The Right to Education is one of the fundamental right in the Indian Constitution (Article 21A inserted in 86th Amendment), passed by the Parliament in 2009.

• The Act ensures that children get education irrespective of their economic condition.
• It provides for free and compulsory education to all children in the age group of 6 to 14 years.
• The financial burden for the implementation is to be shared by State and the Central government on basis of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan program of the Central Government.
• It also provides for 25% reservation for economically disadvantaged communities in all private and minority schools.
• The private schools have to face penalty for violating any provision of this Act.

Q9. What is the salient features of Right to Health ?

Ans. Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and it is not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
The salient features of the right to health are :

• A constitutional duty has been imposed on the state to ensure that the health and strength of workers, men, and women, and the tender age of children are not abused.
• It has to ensure that children are given opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity. Moreover, their childhood will be protected against exploitation.
• The health of infant and mother has to be protected by maternity benefit.
• The primary duty of the state is to improve public health; secure justice and humane conditions for works; extension of sickness, old age, disablement and maternity benefits are also contemplated.
• The state’s duty also includes prohibition of consumption of intoxicating drinking and drugs that are injurious to health.
• A mandatory duty has been imposed on the state to protect and impose a pollution free environment for the good health of its citizens.

Q10. What is a Right to Shelter ?

Ans. Right to shelter includes adequate living space, safe and repeatable structure, clean and hygienic surroundings, sufficient light, pure air and water, electricity, sanitation and other civic amenities like roads.
It is a place where a person has opportunities to grow physically, mentally, intellectually and spiritually. It includes the entire infrastructure necessary to enable an individual to live and develop as a human being and thus, right to shelter has become an integral part of the right to life.

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