India: Family Law

The intersection of personal liberty and social convention has long been a contested terrain in Indian jurisprudence. In a significant pronouncement delivered on 3rd June 2026...

In a significant ruling delivered on 22 May 2026, the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh, before Hon’ble Mr. Justice Namit Kumar, conclusively held that a sole surviving widow of a deceased government...

In a significant ruling delivered on May 29, 2026, the Supreme Court of India in Chaturbhuj Pradhan v. Amar Pradhan & Anr. (2026 INSC 600) dismissed an appeal challenging a direction to undergo DNA...

In Hamsaanandini Nanduri v Union of India, the Supreme Court examined whether adoptive mothers could be denied maternity benefit merely because the adopted child was older than three months. The challenge was first mounted against the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 (“the Act”), but after the Code on Social Security, 2020 (“the Code”) came into force on November 21, 2025, the Court treated the Code as the operative provision.

Wealth and succession planning in India is often shaped by personal law regimes that determine how property devolves upon death. For Muslim families, inheritance is governed primarily by the principles of Islamic law, as recognised under the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937.

In the judgment of the High Court of Judicature for Rajasthan at Jodhpur, comprising Justice Arun Monga and Justice Sunil Beniwal, allowed the matrimonial appeal filed by Kiran Bishnoi...

The law relating to maintenance under Section 125 CrPC has been rooted into the principles of social justice and seeks to prevent destitution and vagrancy. Despite its beneficial object, disputes frequently arise...

The Delhi High Court addressed a critical procedural gap affecting families seeking to relocate adopted children across international borders.

While India remains a non-signatory to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, 1980 ("Hague Convention"), Indian courts have developed a evolved a substantial and principled body of jurisprudence governing international parental child abduction disputes.