Report No. 59
9.7. Section 20, Special Marriage Act.- Section 20 of the Special Marriage Act runs as follows:-
"20. Subject to the provisions of section 19, any person whose marriage is solemnized under this Act, shall have the same rights and shall be subject to the same disabilities in regard to the right of succession to any property as a person to whom the Caste Disabilities Removal Act, 1850, applies."
9.8. It may be stated that the Caste Disabilities etc. Act, 1850 (referred to in section 20), protects those persons who -
(a). have renounced a religion; or
(b) have been excluded from the communion of any religion; or
(c) have been deprived of caste1.
As regards these three categories of persons, the Act provides that "so much of any law or usage......as inflicts on any person forfeiture of rights or property2, or may be held in any way to impair or affect any right of inheritance by reason of his or her renouncing or having been excluded from the communion of, any religion, or being deprived of caste, shall cease to be enforced" in any court of law.
1. For history of the 1850 Act, see Keery Kohitance v. Momi Ram Koleta, (1873) 19 Suthem 1 and Wekkly Reports 367 (378, 400).
2. There is some controversy as to whether the correct text is "rights of property" or "rights or property".
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