Modern Hindu law

Description
It is always a great pleasure to bring out new edition of Modern Hindu Law. Law being dynamic some long awaited changes have been brought about, some by legislature some by judicial interpretations:Law of adoption in India is still not a uniform civil code in the sense it is available to only the majority community. Amongst Hindus also it evolved due to immense importance attached to son so the idea behind pre-Act law of adoption was only to provide son to a sonless father. Therefore a daughter could not be adopted. The post-Act law has been "secularized" in the sense that a girl could now also be adopted. Under the Act a married woman was still not given a right to adopt a child even with permission of her husband whereas a husband could adopt a child with her permission. To rectify this, an amendment has been made in sections 8 and 9 which enables a married woman to take and give a child in adoption with her husband's consent.1
When one goes through the Act one finds it more than apparent that law of adoption in our country is still inadequate and antiquated. The world over the concept of adoption has changed from providing child to childless to providing parent to parentless. It is an era where rights of child have evolved and are in the forefront. There is a marked shift from the times of parens patrie, i.e., from absolute power of adults over children to child being protected from even parents. It has been realized that child is future of our very existence. It is a good investment if child is moulded to be good future citizen to ensure survival of our culture and civilization. Our law of adoption needs more modifications to make it more contemporary.