The Hindu Adoptions And Maintenance Act, 1956

{
    "id": 11930,
    "slug": "hindu-adoptions-and-maintenance-act-1956",
    "title": "The Hindu Adoptions And Maintenance Act, 1956",
    "short_title": "The Hindu Adoptions And Maintenance Act, 1956",
    "act_number": "(78 of 1956)",
    "act_year": 1956,
    "act_type": "CENTRAL",
    "location": "India (Central)",
    "law_status": "unknown",
    "enactment_date": null,
    "description": "The Hindu Adoptions And Maintenance Act, 1956",
    "preamble": "",
    "section_label": "Section",
    "sections": [
        {
            "number": "1",
            "title": "1. Short title and extent",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "FACT SHEET ▼\nObject & Reasons▼\nStatement of Objects and Reasons.",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 0
        },
        {
            "number": "2",
            "title": "2. Application of Act",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "(a) to any person, who is a Hindu by religion in any of its forms or developments, including a Virashaiva, a Lingayat or a follower of the Brahmo, Prarthana or Arya Samaj;\n(b) to any person who is a Buddhist, Jaina or Sikh by religion; and\n(c) to any other person who is not a Muslim, Christian, Parsi or Jew by religion, unless it is proved that any such person would not have been governed by the Hindu Law or by any custom or usage as part of that law in respect of any of the matters dealt with herein if this Act had not been passed.\nExplanation\n(a) any child, legitimate or illegitimate, both of whose parents are Hindus, Buddhists, Jainas or Sikhs by religion;\n(b) any child, legitimate or illegitimate, one of whose parents is a Hindu, Buddhist, Jaina or Sikh by religion and who is brought up as a member of the tribe, community, group or family to which such parent belongs or belonged; [*]\n[(bb) any child, legitimate or illegitimate, who has been abandoned both by his father and mother or whose parentage is not known and who in either case is brought up as a Hindu, Buddhist, Jaina or Sikh;] and\n(c) any person who is a convert or re-convert to the Hindu, Buddhist, Jaina or Sikh religion.",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 1
        },
        {
            "number": "3",
            "title": "3. Definitions",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "(a) the expressions custom and usage signify any rule which, having been continuously and uniformly observed for a long time, has obtained the force of law among Hindus in any local area, tribe, community, group or family:\n(b) maintenance includes\n(i) in all cases, provision for food, clothing, residence, education and medical attendance and treatment;\n(ii) in the case of an unmarried daughter, also the reasonable expenses of and incident to her marriage;\n(c) minor means a person who has not completed his or her age of eighteen years.",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": true,
            "sort_order": 2
        },
        {
            "number": "4",
            "title": "4. Overriding effect of Act",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "(a) any text, rule or interpretation of Hindu Law or any custom or usage as part of that law in force immediately before the commencement of this Act shall cease to have effect with respect to any matter for which provision is made in this Act;\n(b) any other law in force immediately before the commencement of this Act shall cease to apply to Hindus in so far as it is inconsistent with any of the provisions contained in this Act.\nChapter II\nAdoption",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 3
        },
        {
            "number": "5",
            "title": "5. Adoptions to be regulated by this Chapter",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 4
        },
        {
            "number": "6",
            "title": "6. Requisites of a valid adoption",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "(i) the person adopting has the capacity, and also the right, to take in adoption;\n(ii) the person giving in adoption has the capacity to do so;\n(iii) the person adopted is capable of being taken in adoption; and\n(iv) the adoption is made in compliance with the other conditions mentioned in this Chapter.",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 5
        },
        {
            "number": "7",
            "title": "7. Capacity of a male Hindu to take in adoption",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "Explanation\n[8. Capacity of a female Hindu to take in adoption.\nOLD LAW  ▼",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 6
        },
        {
            "number": "8",
            "title": "8. Capacity of a female Hindu to take in adoption",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "(a) who is of sound mind,\n(b) who is not a minor, and\n(c) who is not married, or if married, whose marriage has been dissolved or whose husband is dead or has completely and finally renounced the world or has ceased to be a Hindu or has been declared by a Court of competent jurisdiction to be of unsound mind, has the capacity to take a son or daughter in adoption.",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 7
        },
        {
            "number": "9",
            "title": "9. Persons capable of giving in adoption",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "Explanation\n(i) the expressions father and mother do not include an adoptive father and an adoptive mother; [*]\n[(ia) guardian means a person having the care of the person of a child or of both his person and property and includes\n(a) a guardian appointed by the will of the childs father or mother, and\n(b) a guardian appointed or declared by a Court; and]\n(ii) Court means the City Civil Court or a district Court within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the child to be adopted ordinarily resides.\nOLD LAW  ▼",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 8
        },
        {
            "number": "10",
            "title": "10. Persons who may be adopted",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "(i) he or she is a Hindu;\n(ii) he or she has not already been adopted;\n(iii) he or she has not been married, unless there is a custom or usage applicable to the parties which permits persons who are married being taken in adoption;\n(iv) he or she has not completed the age of fifteen years, unless there is a custom or usage applicable to the parties which permits persons who have completed the age of fifteen years being taken in adoption.",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 9
        },
        {
            "number": "11",
            "title": "11. Other conditions for a valid adoption",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "(i) if the adoption is of a son, the adoptive father or mother by whom the adoption is made must not have a Hindu son, sons son or sons sons son (whether by legitimate blood relationship or by adoption) living at the time of adoption;\n(ii) if the adoption is of a daughter, the adoptive father or mother by whom the adoption is made must not have a Hindu daughter or sons daughter (whether by legitimate blood relationship or by adoption) living at the time of adoption;\n(iii) if the adoption is by a male and the person to be adopted is a female, the adoptive father is at least twenty-one years older than the person to be adopted;\n(iv) if the adoption is by a female and the person to be adopted is a male, the adoptive mother is at least twenty-one years older than the person to be adopted;\n(v) the same child may not be adopted simultaneously by two or more persons;\n(vi) the child to be adopted must be actually given and taken in adoption by the parents or guardian concerned or under their authority with intent to transfer the child from the family of its birth [or in the case of an abandoned child or a child whose parentage is not known, from the place or family where it has been brought up] to the family of its adoption:",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 10
        },
        {
            "number": "12",
            "title": "12. Effects of adoption",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "(a) the child cannot marry any person whom he or she could not have married if he or she had continued in the family of his or her birth;\n(b) any property which vested in the adopted child before the adoption shall continue to vest in such person subject to the obligations, if any, attaching to the ownership of such property, including the obligation to maintain relatives in the family of his or her birth;\n(c) the adopted child shall not divest any person of any estate which vested in him or her before the adoption.",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 11
        },
        {
            "number": "13",
            "title": "13. Right of adoptive parents to dispose of their properties",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 12
        },
        {
            "number": "14",
            "title": "14. Determination of adoptive mother in certain cases",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 13
        },
        {
            "number": "15",
            "title": "15. Valid adoption not to be cancelled",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 14
        },
        {
            "number": "16",
            "title": "16. Presumption as to registered documents relating to adoption",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 15
        },
        {
            "number": "17",
            "title": "17. Prohibition of certain payments",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "Chapter III\nMaintenance",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 16
        },
        {
            "number": "18",
            "title": "18. Maintenance of wife",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "(a) if he is guilty of desertion, that is to say, of abandoning her without reasonable cause and without her consent or against her wish, or of wilfully neglecting her;\n(b) if he has treated her with such cruelty as to cause a reasonable apprehension in her mind that it will be harmful or injurious to live with her husband;\n[***]\n(d) if he has any other wife living;\n(e) if he keeps a concubine in the same house in which his wife is living or habitually resides with a concubine elsewhere;\n(f) if he has ceased to be a Hindu by conversion to another religion;\n(g) if there is any other cause justifying her living separately.",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 17
        },
        {
            "number": "19",
            "title": "19. Maintenance of widowed daughter-in-law",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "(a) from the estate of her husband or her father or mother, or\n(b) from her son or daughter, if any, or his or her estate.",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 18
        },
        {
            "number": "20",
            "title": "20. Maintenance of children and aged parents",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "Explanation",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 19
        },
        {
            "number": "21",
            "title": "21. Dependants defined",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "(i) his or her father;\n(ii) his or her mother;\n(iii) his widow, so long as she does not remarry;\n(iv) his or her son or the son of his predeceased son or the son of a pre-deceased son of his predeceased son, so long as he is a minor: provided and to the extent that he is unable to obtain maintenance, in the case of a grandson from his fathers or mothers estate, and in the case of a great-grandson, from the estate of his father or mother or fathers father or fathers mother;\n(v) his or her unmarried daughter, or the unmarried daughter of his pre-deceased son or the unmarried daughter of a predeceased son of his predeceased son, so long as she remains unmarried: provided and to the extent that she is unable to obtain maintenance, in the case of a grand-daughter from her fathers or mothers estate and in the case of a great-grand-daughter from the estate of her father or mother or fathers father or fathers mother;\n(vi) his widowed daughter: provided and to the extent that she is unable to obtain maintenance\n(a) from the estate of her husband; or\n(b) from her son or daughter, if any, or his or her estate; or\n(c) from her father-in-law or his father or the estate of either of them;\n(vii) any widow of his son or of a son of his predeceased son, so long as she does not remarry: provided and to the extent that she is unable to obtain maintenance from her husbands estate, or from her son or daughter, if any, or his or her estate; or in the case of a grandsons widow, also from her father-in-laws estate;\n(viii) his or her minor illegitimate son, so long as he remains a minor;\n(ix) his or her illegitimate daughter, so long as she remains unmarried.",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 20
        },
        {
            "number": "22",
            "title": "22. Maintenance of dependants",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 21
        },
        {
            "number": "23",
            "title": "23. Amount of maintenance",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "(a) the position and status of the parties;\n(b) the reasonable wants of the claimant;\n(c) if the claimant is living separately, whether the claimant is justified in doing so;\n(d) the value of the claimants property and any income derived from such property, or from the claimants own earnings or from any other source;\n(e) the number of persons entitled to maintenance under this Act.\n(a) the net value of the estate of the deceased after providing for the payment of his debts;\n(b) the provision, if any, made under a will of the deceased in respect of the dependant;\n(c) the degree of relationship between the two;\n(d) the reasonable wants of the dependant;\n(e) the past relations between the dependant and the deceased;\n(f) the value of the property of the dependant and any income derived from such property, or from his or her earnings or from any other source;\n(g) the number of dependants entitled to maintenance under this Act.",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 22
        },
        {
            "number": "24",
            "title": "24. Claimant to maintenance should be a Hindu",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 23
        },
        {
            "number": "25",
            "title": "25. Amount of maintenance may be altered on change of circumstances",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 24
        },
        {
            "number": "26",
            "title": "26. Debts to have priority",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 25
        },
        {
            "number": "27",
            "title": "27. Maintenance when to be a charge",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 26
        },
        {
            "number": "28",
            "title": "28. Effect of transfer of property on right to maintenance",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "Chapter IV\nRepeals And Savings",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 27
        },
        {
            "number": "29",
            "title": "29. Repeals",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 28
        },
        {
            "number": "30",
            "title": "30. Savings",
            "chapter": null,
            "content": "",
            "footnote": "",
            "is_definition": false,
            "sort_order": 29
        }
    ],
    "metadata": {
        "Act ID": "font size=2>Last Updated 30th December, 2019 [act035]",
        "Act Number": "(78 of 1956)",
        "Enactment Date": "",
        "Act Year": "1956",
        "Short Title": "The Hindu Adoptions And Maintenance Act, 1956",
        "Type": "CENTRAL",
        "Location": "India (Central)"
    },
    "updated_at": "2026-09-29 21:51:52"
}