The Cabinet approved two amendments to the act, which the Christian community in India had long sought.
In a meeting with the Church delegation led by Archbishop Oswald Gracias, the conference´s secretary-general, Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley discussed the discrepancies in the act introduced during the British rule.
Under the act, a Christian needed a probate court´s approval before he or she could inherit an ancestral property, a process that often took years. The act also had a provision that allowed a husband´s family to deny his widow her right to inherit her spouse´s property.
«We are extremely pleased with the Cabinet decision to approve the said amendments, which the Christian community had long been waiting for,» Archbishop Gracias said of the mid-November developments. «We hope that the amendment with regard to the law of adoption by Christians will also be enacted soon.»
