In a landmark judgement the High Court of Bangladesh has ordered that Hindu widows are entitled to share in all properties of their deceased husband. Earlier, the law entitled the Hindu widows only to the homestead property of their husband. The single judge bench of Justice Miftah Uddin Choudhury pronounced the judgement yesterday confirming a lower court’s verdict of 2004 that had ruled that the widow had rights to all the properties of her husband.

 
Bangladesh Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Oikya Parishad General Secretary Rana Das Gupta hailed the verdict as a landmark judgement and also a safeguard to helpless Hindu widows. The inheritance rights of a woman on the property of her husband is guided by the Hindu Women’s Rights to Property Act, 1937 which curtailed Hindu women of their property rights.