B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 5 Family Law I (Hindu Law) 2026 Jan Question Paper with Solutions

For full marks, cover: the meaning of the word dharma (from "dhri", to hold or sustain); dharma as the whole duty of a person, wider than law; the sources of dharma as Manu states them (Sruti, Smriti, the conduct of the virtuous, and what satisfies one's conscience); the three branches of the smritis (achara, vyavahara and prayaschitta) and why vyavahara is the part courts apply; rajadharma and the king's duty to uphold dharma; dharma and the four aims of life; Narayana Deekshitulu, Yagnapurushdasji and Collector of Madura explained; what remains of dharma in modern Hindu law; a conclusion.

The meaning of the word

Dharma comes from the Sanskrit root "dhri". It means to hold, to support or to sustain. So dharma is that which holds the individual and society together.

There is no single English word for it. It is often translated as religion, duty, righteousness or law. Each translation catches only a part of it. Dharma covers religious duties, moral duties, social duties and legal duties together.

The sources of dharma

Manu names four sources of dharma.

1. Sruti, the Vedas, which are believed to be revealed.
2. Smriti, the texts remembered and composed by the sages.
3. Sadachara, the conduct of virtuous and learned persons.
4. Atmatushti, what is agreeable to one's own conscience.

Yajnavalkya adds a fifth, the desire born of due deliberation. These sources became the classical sources of Hindu law. The third source, the practice of good people, later grew into custom, the strongest of the ancient sources in practice.

The three branches of the smritis

The smritis divide dharma into three parts.

1. Achara, the rules of conduct, such as rites, ceremonies and the duties of the castes and stages of life.
2. Vyavahara, the rules of civil and criminal law and procedure. Narada and Yajnavalkya set out eighteen titles of law, such as debts, deposits, partition and inheritance.
3. Prayaschitta, the rules of penance for wrongs done.

The case shows that dharma, in its legal sense, means law that binds the ruler and the ruled alike. It is not a call for a religious state.

Dharma, religion and the breadth of Hinduism

Dharma is wider than any one belief. Hindu religion itself has no single founder, book or creed. This breadth was explained in Sastri Yagnapurushdasji v. Muldas Bhudardas Vaishya, AIR 1966 SC 1119.

The followers of the Swaminarayan sect, the Satsangis, wanted to keep non-Satsangi Harijans out of their temples. They argued that their religion was different from Hinduism, so the Bombay temple entry law did not apply. The Supreme Court rejected this. It held that the Satsangis are Hindus and the law applied.

The Court said that Hindu religion does not claim one prophet, one God or one dogma. In its words, it "can be safely described as a way of life based on certain basic concepts". It approved Tilak's formula. The formula has three parts: the Vedas are accepted with reverence, the ways to salvation are many, and the gods to be worshipped are many. This is dharma seen as a way of life rather than a fixed creed.

1. Where the Acts are silent, as in the joint family, the karta and partition, the old law still applies.
2. Ideas of duty survive in the law of maintenance, which rests on the old duty to support one's family.
3. Courts still use the idea to explain the spirit of the law, as Narayana Deekshitulu shows.

Conclusion. Dharma means that which sustains. It is the whole duty of a person, religious, moral, social and legal, according to his place and stage of life. Its sources are the Vedas, the smritis, the conduct of the good and conscience. Only its vyavahara part was ever enforced by courts, and that part became Hindu law. Today most of that law is statutory. Yet the idea of dharma still explains its spirit. The Supreme Court has read it as the rule of law, binding the ruler as much as the ruled.