History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.167

v4.c63.t2.167

The word 'mother' in the Mit. does not include a step-mother. The latter is not recognised as an heir of her step-son at all in the whole of India (except in Bombay) on account of the rule of the exclusion of women from inheritance¹³⁹⁴ except where texts expressly mention them as heirs and the property would go to the crown instead of to the step-mother, if the latter alone were left, but she would be entitled to maintenance. In Bombay the step-mother would inherit as the widow of a gotraja sapiṇḍa, but she is assigned a remote¹³⁹⁵ place among gotraja sapiṇḍas. If a widow remarries and then her son by her first husband dies without leaving a child, a widow, a daughter or daughter's son his remarried mother is allowed to inherit to him by the¹³⁹⁶ Bombay High Court, though if she inherited first as a mother and then remarried, she is held by the same court to forfeit the inheritance taken (on account of section 2 of the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act of 1856).