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B.B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 4 Women and Law (Hons) 2019 Jun Question Paper with Solutions

KSLU Solved Question Papers

Women and Law (Hons)

Previous Year Question Paper with Solution

B.B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 4

2019 Jun Examination

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Mumbai

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First published on munotes.in on 2 November 2026.

Published by munotes.in, Mumbai.

Model answers written and edited by the munotes.in editorial desk.

Passages from this volume may be quoted, in print, online or by an AI system, with credit: name munotes.in and link to this volume's page. The volume may not be reproduced as a whole. Full terms at munotes.in/content-license.

munotes.in is an independent study resource for students of Karnataka State Law University. It is not affiliated with Karnataka State Law University, and is not endorsed by it.

The University does not publish an official answer key for this paper. The answers in this volume are model answers, written to show how a full-mark answer is built. They are a study aid, not an authority on what an examiner marked.

The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by Karnataka State Law University at the 2019 Jun examination.

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Contents

The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2019 Jun examination, in the order it was set.

MarksPage

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MarksPage

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The Paper as Set

The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2019 Jun 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 2½ hours  ·  Total marks 70  ·  12 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.

Read the original question paper

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Q1Discuss the status of women during pre-independence period.[10]

Answer

For full marks, cover: the ancient period (Altekar's four periods, the Vedic age and the decline after about 500 B.C.); the medieval period (child marriage, sati, enforced widowhood, limited estate); the colonial period (personal law in the courts, the social reform movement, the reform laws from 1829 to 1946); women in the national movement and the franchise; the Karachi Resolution of 1931; and a conclusion linking all this to the Constitution.

Introduction

The status of women in India before independence was not the same in every age. It was relatively high in the early Vedic period. It declined sharply over the next two thousand years. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, reformers and laws began to lift it again. A.S. Altekar's study divides the long Hindu period into four parts:

  1. the Vedic age, about 2500 to 1500 B.C.;
  2. the later Samhitas, Brahmanas and Upanishads, about 1500 to 500 B.C.;
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  1. the Sutras, Epics and early Smritis, about 500 B.C. to 500 A.D.;
  2. the later Smritis and digests, about 500 to 1800 A.D.

The Vedic age: a relatively high position

In the early Vedic period women enjoyed a comparatively good position.

  1. Education. Girls were educated, and some women composed hymns.
  2. Marriage. Girls married at about sixteen or seventeen. They had a voice in the choice of husband.
  3. No sati. Widows did not burn on the husband's pyre.
  4. Remarriage. A widow could remarry, or have a son by niyoga.
  5. Religious life. Women took part in religious rites with their husbands.

There was one great gap. Women had no property rights.

The decline after about 500 B.C.

From about 500 B.C. the position began to fall.

  1. The age of marriage was lowered. By about 200 A.D. marriage had replaced the sacred thread ceremony (upanayana) for girls.
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  1. By about 500 A.D. girls were married by the age of twelve. Early marriage ended their education.
  2. Women lost their place in religious rites.
  3. Dependence on father, husband and son became the rule.

The medieval period (500 to 1800 A.D.)

In this period the position became worse in almost everything except property.

  1. Widow remarriage was prohibited among the higher castes.
  2. Sati became common in the fighting classes.
  3. Enforced widowhood meant a life of hardship, often from childhood.
  4. Purdah limited women's movement in many communities.
  5. Property. By about 1200 A.D. a widow could inherit her husband's property. But she took only a limited estate, which passed to his heirs after her death.

The colonial period: personal law in the courts

British courts applied the personal laws of Hindus and Muslims. So the old rules continued. The preamble to the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act 1856 records that widows were "incapable of contracting a second valid marriage" in the courts.

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Sati continued. Reported satis in Bengal rose from 378 in 1815 to 839 in 1818.

The social reform movement

Indian reformers led campaigns against sati, infanticide, child marriage, enforced widowhood, polygamy, purdah and the denial of education.

  1. Raja Rammohan Ray wrote against sati from 1818 and founded the Brahmo Samaj in 1828.
  2. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar argued from the Parasara Samhita for widow remarriage.
  3. Jotirao and Savitribai Phule opened a girls' school in August 1848 and protected widows and their children.
  4. Keshab Chandra Sen pressed for a civil marriage law.
  5. The Prarthana Samaj (1867), the Arya Samaj (1875) and Pandita Ramabai's Arya Mahila Samaj worked for women's education and reform.
  6. Malabari and Ranade campaigned against child marriage.

The reform laws

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YearLawEffect
1829Bengal Regulation XVIISati made culpable homicide
1856Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act (Act XV)Widow remarriage made valid
1872Special Marriage Act (Act III)Civil marriage; no living spouse; man 18, woman 14
1874Married Women's Property ActA married woman's earnings became her separate property
1891Age of Consent ActAge of consent raised from ten to twelve
1929Child Marriage Restraint Act (Sarda Act)Minimum age: boys 18, girls 14
1937Hindu Women's Rights to Property ActWidow inherits like a son, but only a "Hindu woman's estate"
1937Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application ActShariat applies notwithstanding custom
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YearLawEffect
1939Dissolution of Muslim Marriages ActMuslim wife may seek divorce on listed grounds
1946Act XIXHindu wife's right to separate residence and maintenance

These laws were important. But they were limited. The 1856 Act made a remarried widow forfeit her late husband's property. The Sarda Act did not make a child marriage invalid.

Women in the national movement

From the Non-co-operation movement of 1920, women entered political life in large numbers. Hundreds went to jail. Sarojini Naidu presided over the Indian National Congress. Vijayalakshmi Pandit became the first woman minister, in the United Provinces. A women's conference met every year from 1926.

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The vote

After 1919 women's franchise was left to the provinces. They granted it on the same property qualifications as men, so few women could vote. The Government of India Act 1935 gave a wider but often derivative franchise, based on the husband's qualification. It also reserved some seats for women.

The Karachi Resolution, 1931

The Indian National Congress, at Karachi in March 1931, adopted a resolution on Fundamental Rights and Economic Programme. It promised equality before the law "irrespective of caste, creed or sex" (clause 1(4)). It barred any disability by reason of sex in public employment, office, trade or calling (clause 1(5)). It promised universal adult suffrage (clause 1(10)) and maternity leave for women workers (clause 4). These became Articles 14, 15, 16, 42 and 326 of the Constitution of India.

Assessment

  1. Women's status fell from a fairly high Vedic position to deep subordination by the medieval period.
  2. Social reformers, many of them Indian, began the change in the nineteenth century.
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  1. Reform laws removed the worst evils, such as sati, but left women unequal in property and marriage.
  2. The national movement brought women into public life and made equality a political demand.

Conclusion. Before independence, Indian women moved from a relatively free Vedic position to centuries of early marriage, sati, enforced widowhood and limited property. From 1829 onwards, reformers such as Rammohan Ray, Vidyasagar and the Phules began to restore their rights. So did laws on sati, widow remarriage, civil marriage, property and child marriage. The national movement and the Karachi Resolution of 1931 made equality of the sexes a national goal. The Constitution of 1950, with Articles 14, 15 and 326, turned that goal into law.

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