History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c93.636.2

v7.c93.636.2

The Act allows a woman (even if not married) to adopt to herself a son or daughter or both and under it a woman, if married, can adopt a daughter even if she has a son but a married woman cannot adopt a daughter if she has already a daughter or a son's daughter living at the time of adoption (sections 8 and 11) The Act does not recognize dvyāmuṣyāyaṇa adoptions which were recognized by Sanskrit texts and also by judicial decisions The ministers in the Government and their followers (most of the latter hardly know what Hindu Law was and has been) were carried away by enthusiasm for equality of rights for both men and women. As the Indian Union is now a welfare State and it is professed that laws are to be made keeping in view a socialistic pattern, Govt. should have disallowed adoptions altogether or at least put great curbs on indiscriminate adoptions. Instead, they extended the scope of adoption among Hindus by allowing a man to adopt a daughter even when he had a son or sons and by allowing even unmarried women to adopt a son or daughter or both This is against a socialistic pattern. If adoptions had been disallowed entirely or allowed within narrow limits cases of escheat to Government for want of heirs would have been many and to that extent a socialistic pattern would have been advanced. There is no evidence to show that women were keen on the right to adopt a son or daughter even when they were unmarried.