KSLU Solved Question Papers
Family Law I (Hindu Law)
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 5
2015 Dec (100 marks) Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 5 Family Law I (Hindu Law) 2015 Dec (100 marks) Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2015 Dec (100 marks) examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2015 Dec (100 marks) examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 100 · 13 questions answered
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
Q1Briefly explain the sources of Hindu Law with special reference to "Smrithis".[16]
Answer
For full marks, cover: the sources in brief, in a table (ancient: Shruti, Smriti, commentaries and digests, custom; modern: justice, equity and good conscience, precedent, legislation); the Smritis answered as five questions: what they are and how they differ from the Shruti; who wrote the leading ones and what each gave the law (Manu, Yajnavalkya, Narada, Brihaspati, Katyayana; Dharmasutras before them); what family law they laid down (forms of marriage, kinds of sons and adoption, the joint family and the son's birthright, the pious obligation, stridhan) and what the Acts did with each (Bhaurao Shankar Lokhande on the ceremonies); how far they bound (Shruti above them; custom over them, Collector of Madura; equity where they were silent, Saraswathi Ammal); what they count for today (section 4 of the codifying Acts; the uncodified areas; dharma as law, Narayana Deekshitulu); a criticism; a conclusion.
The sources in brief
A "source" of Hindu law is where its rules come from. The sources fall into two groups.
| Source | What it is | Its weight today |
|---|---|---|
| Shruti | The Vedas, believed to be revealed, "that which is heard" | Few legal rules; of historical value |
| Smriti | Texts of sages recording the law, "that which is remembered" | Replaced by statute on most family matters |
| Commentaries and digests | Scholars' explanations of the Smritis, such as the Mitakshara and the Dayabhaga | Still decide uncodified questions, and created the schools |
| Custom | Long, certain usage with the force of law | Prevails over texts; saved by some Acts |
| Justice, equity and good conscience | The courts' fair rule where no text or custom applies | Fills remaining gaps |
| Judicial precedent | Decisions of the higher courts | Binding under Article 141 |
| Legislation | The Hindu Marriage Act 1955 and the three Acts of 1956 | The main source now |
Of the ancient sources, the Smritis matter most. The Vedas say little about law. Custom must be proved case by case. The commentaries are only explanations of the Smritis. So the Smritis are where classical Hindu law is actually written down.
Question 1: what are the Smritis?
"Smriti" means "that which is remembered". The Shruti was believed to be heard directly from the divine. The Smritis were composed by human sages, who claimed to record rules remembered from the Vedic tradition.
Two kinds of writing came under this name.
- The Dharmasutras. These are earlier, short works in prose. The best known are those of Gautama, Baudhayana, Apastamba and Vasishtha.
- The Dharmashastras. These are later, longer works in verse. They are more orderly, and they are what lawyers usually mean by the Smritis.
Each Smriti covers three fields: conduct and ritual (achara), law and procedure (vyavahara), and penance (prayaschitta). Only the second became law in the modern sense.
Question 2: who wrote the leading Smritis, and what did each give?
- Manu. The Manusmriti is the oldest of the great verse Smritis and the most respected. It sets out eighteen titles of law, from debts and deposits to partition and the duties of husband and wife. Later writers treated a rule contrary to Manu as not to be followed.
- Yajnavalkya. His Smriti is shorter and better arranged. It is divided into three books on achara, vyavahara and prayaschitta. Its real importance came later. Vijnaneshwara's Mitakshara is a commentary on it, and the Mitakshara governs most of India, including Karnataka.
- Narada. His work deals almost entirely with law and procedure. It shows the Smritis turning from ritual towards a working legal system.
- Brihaspati. He wrote widely on procedure and evidence, and stressed that judges should decide by reason as well as by text.
- Katyayana. He is the main Smriti authority on stridhan, a woman's separate property.
Question 3: what family law did the Smritis lay down, and what became of it?
Marriage. The Smritis describe eight forms of marriage. Four, such as the Brahma form, were approved. Four, such as the Asura form by payment of a price, were disapproved. All of them saw marriage as a sacrament. The Hindu Marriage Act 1955 dropped the forms but kept the ceremonies. Section 7 recognises the customary rites, including the Saptapadi.
The Supreme Court has insisted on those rites. Bhaurao Shankar Lokhande v. State of Maharashtra, AIR 1965 SC 1564. A man was convicted of bigamy for a second marriage at which the invocation before the sacred fire and the Saptapadi were not performed. The Court set aside the conviction. Without the essential ceremonies, unless a custom altered them, there was no valid marriage at all. So a Smriti requirement still decides cases through section 7.
Sons and adoption. Manu lists twelve kinds of sons. Over time only the son given in adoption (dattaka) remained important. The Smritis allowed only a son to be adopted, mainly for religious reasons. The Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act 1956 now allows a daughter to be adopted, and a woman to adopt.
The joint family. The Smritis, read through the Mitakshara, gave a son an interest in ancestral property by birth. Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act 1956 keeps the coparcenary, and since 2005 gives the daughter the same birthright.
The pious obligation. The Smritis made it a son's religious duty to pay his father's debts that were not immoral. Section 6(4), added in 2005, ends that liability for new debts.
Women's property. Katyayana and others defined stridhan, over which a woman had full control. Other property a woman inherited was only a limited estate. Section 14 of the 1956 Act now makes all her property absolute.
Question 4: how far did the Smritis bind?
- Below the Shruti. In theory, where a Smriti conflicted with the Vedas, the Vedas prevailed. In practice, this rarely arose.
- Below a proved custom. Collector of Madura v. Moottoo Ramalinga Sathupathy, (1868) 12 MIA 397, the Ramnad case. A zamindar's widow adopted a boy with the consent of her husband's sapindas, though he had left her no authority. The Privy Council upheld the adoption. It said that "clear proof of usage will outweigh the written text of the law". So a Smriti rule could be displaced by local custom.
- Silent on many points. Where neither the Smritis nor custom gave a rule, the courts applied justice, equity and good conscience. Saraswathi Ammal v. Jagadambal, AIR 1953 SC 201. A dasi of Tanjore district died leaving three daughters, and one of them set up a community custom favouring herself. The custom was not proved. The Supreme Court applied the rule of nearness of relationship as equity, and the daughters took equally.
Question 5: what do the Smritis count for today?
Overridden on codified matters. Section 4 of the Hindu Marriage Act and section 4 of the Hindu Succession Act deal with the old texts. Any earlier text, rule or interpretation of Hindu law "shall cease to have effect" on a matter the Act covers. On marriage, divorce, succession, adoption, maintenance and guardianship, the Acts now govern.
Still alive elsewhere. The joint family, partition, the karta's powers and religious endowments remain largely uncodified. There, the Smritis, through the commentaries and the cases, are still the law.
A key to the Acts. Many statutory terms, such as sapinda, coparcener and stridhan, come from the Smritis. Their meaning is often found there.
Dharma as law. A.S. Narayana Deekshitulu v. State of Andhra Pradesh, AIR 1996 SC 1765. Hereditary temple priests challenged an Andhra Pradesh law that ended their hereditary rights. The Supreme Court upheld the law. It explained that "Dharma regulates the mutual obligations of individual and the society", and that "Dharmarajya means Rule of Law". In that sense, the Smritis were early statements of law, not only of religion.
A criticism
The Smritis reflected their time. They gave women limited property rights, tied many rules to caste, and allowed a man several wives. Courts and Parliament have had to move away from these rules. The Constitution's guarantee of equality now limits any Smriti rule that survives.
Conclusion. Hindu law has ancient sources, Shruti, Smriti, commentaries and custom, and modern ones, equity, precedent and legislation. The Smritis are the most important ancient source. Manu, Yajnavalkya, Narada, Brihaspati and Katyayana laid down the classical law of marriage, sons, the joint family and women's property. They gave way to proved custom, as the Ramnad case shows, and the courts filled their gaps with equity, as in Saraswathi Ammal. Today the Acts override them on codified matters, yet they still govern the joint family and endowments. Their ceremonies still decide cases, as Bhaurao Shankar Lokhande shows.
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