Hindu widows have right to husbands’ agricultural, nonagricultural land: HC

The High Court today ruled that Hindu widows will have right to the agricultural and nonagricultural lands of their husbands.

They can sell the land during their lifetime, the HC observed.

Interpreting the Hindu Women's Right to Properties Act, a judgment of Indian Federal Court in 1941, and Adaption Law of 1972, the court said no separation has been made between agricultural and nonagricultural land in Bangladesh.

The HC bench of Justice Md Miftah Uddin Choudhury came up with the verdict following a civil revision petition filed by Jyotindranath Mondal from Haliagram village under Batiaghata upazila in Khulna, challenging a lower court verdict.

On March 7, 2004, the joint district judge of Khulna delivered the judgement in a case filed by Jyotindranath saying that Gauri Dasi, widow of Jyotindranath's elder brother Avimannu Mondal, has right to her husband's agricultural land.

The land had been recorded in the name of Gauri Dasi after the death of her husband in 1996.

Later, Jyotindranath filed the case with the court of an assistant judge in Khulna, challenging the record of the land.

After the hearing, the HC today delivered the verdict.

Barrister Ujjal Bhowmick, an amicus curiae (friend of court), told The Daily Star that today's HC verdict is a landmark judgment as it has removed the ambiguity of the laws regarding the rights of Hindu widows to their husbands' lands.

Lawyer Md Abdul Zabbar appeared for Jyotindranath while lawyer Nafiul Islam argued for Gauri Dasi.