KATHMANDU, MAY 5
The Supreme Court has invalidated a legal provision requiring widows to return property inherited from their first husband if they remarry.
A constitutional bench on Monday annulled Section 214(2) of the Civil Code Act, 2017, according to court information officer Nirajan Pandey.
The bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice Sapana Pradhan Malla and Justices Kumar Regmi, Hari Prasad Phuyal, Manoj Kumar Sharma and Nahakul Subedi, ruled that the provision was inconsistent with constitutional guarantees of equality.
Section 214 allows a widow to claim and separate her share of property at any time. However, sub-section (2) required that if a widow remarried, the property obtained from her first husband would pass to his children, or to the widow herself only if there were no such children.
The court held that this provision was discriminatory and violated Articles 16 (right to dignified life), 18 (right to equality) and 25 (property rights) of the Constitution.
The petition challenging the provision was filed in June 2020 by four individuals, including Mira Dhungana of the Forum for Women, Law and Development, naming the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers and several ministries and parliamentary bodies as respondents.