Report No. 66

5.4. Section 21, Indian Succession Act, 1925.-

Section 21 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, corresponding to section 44 of the Act of 1865, deals with the effect of marriage between a person domiciled in India and a person not so domiciled. The section is, in a sense, an addition to the rule contained in section 20 of the Indian Succession Act1, inasmuch as the applicability of section 20 (previously section 4) in relation to the movable property of a person not having an Indian domicile was in dispute for some time2. The effect of section 21 is that where either of the parties had an Indian domicile and the marriage takes place in India, the rights of the parties both as to movables and immovables are, in respect of the matter dealt with by the section, governed by the territorial law of India. As Markby J. pointed out3: "The jus gentium or common law of nations has been set aside or modified" to that extent.

1. Para. 5.3, supra.

2. Miller v. Administrator General, 1874 ILR 1 Cal 412.

3. Miller v. Administrator General, 1874 ILR 1 Cal 412.