Report No. 15
41. First view not accepted.-
The first view is, strictly speaking, logical. But the Indian legislature has to some extent, made a departure from it when it enacted section 21 of the Indian Divorce Act, 1869, conferring certain rights of succession on children of void marriages contracted bona fide; and that having stood as law for now ninety years, we do not consider it expedient now to go back upon it on grounds of pure logic. As already stated1, the British Parliament has also relaxed somewhat the strictness of the law on this subject and has recognised by the Legitimacy Act, 1959, certain rights in children of void marriages contracted bona fide. We have, therefore, not adopted the first view.
1. Paras. 38 and 39, supra.