The Personal Laws applicable to Goa in respect of Succession, Inheritance and Inventory Proceedings have only been recently notified in 2016 by the Legislative Assembly of the State.
The period from December 19, 1961, until September 19, 2016, has been a duration of silent learning which represents an acknowledgement of prospectivity in its normative and contemporaneous application to the facts in every case while simultaneously acknowledging the roots of Goan jurisprudence ordained in colonial jurisprudence.
According to Sally Engle Merry of Wellesley College, in her article entitled: Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought: Colonialism, Post-Colonialism, and Legal Theory (1994),
“Law has played a critical role in the expansion of European colonial control over Africa, Asia, and the Pacific in the last three centuries, leaving a complex legacy in the post-colonial world.
Recent scholarship in the anthropology of colonialism considers the ways in which colonisers came to interpret subjugated peoples as "others" in relation to themselves and the ways in which the rulers constructed oppositional and resistant identities.
What can we learn about the nature of law from colonial and post-colonial practices? What were the uses of law both in defining the subjugated as lawless and in legitimating colonial rule?...” Sally Engle Merry (1994)
Focusing on the role that law has played in the sociocultural transformations of colonialism, and by examining how law served as a core mode of domination and, from time to time, created a space for resistance by colonised peoples represents an area of legal research that is open to a multitude of interpretations that do not necessarily have to be negative in thought.
Predominantly because it was the very same law which also enabled a determination through discourse from which the emanation of resistance would be possible.
Therefore, while it would be undeniable that one of the uses of law in colonial situations was the construction of boundaries, social and sexual, between colonised and dominant groups, while from an academic standpoint it would be unwise to discard objectivity by placing a pigeonholed focus on ways in which the law defined personhood and fixed and policed the boundaries between groups, particularly those based on race, class, and gender during the era of colonisation.
It feels immensely encouraging to witness how the law has evolved and the legal system currently in place in Goa has even garnered the attention of the Law Commission of India in its Consultation Paper on Reform of Family Law, dated August 31, 2018.
The relevant observations from the consultation paper elucidate:
“1.23. While there is certainly a desire for change, there is also equally a need to acknowledge the hindrances to any endeavours to institute a uniform civil code…Articles 371 (A) to (I) and the sixth schedule of the constitution of India provides certain protections or rather exceptions to the states of Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Andhra Pradesh and Goa with respect to family law.”
“5.105. Post 1925: In 1925, the Indian Succession Act (the Act 1925), was passed, consolidating the laws of succession. By virtue of section 29 of the Act, Hindus were exempted from the rules of succession and additionally, Muslims, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs as well as others were also exempted…”
“…The applicability of the Act 1925 comes into picture only when Christians are not governed by any other customary or statutory laws. For instance, Christians in Goa, Daman and Diu are governed by the Portuguese Civil Code, 1867 while those in Pondicherry are governed by customary Hindu law, the Act 1925, and the French Civil Code, 1804.”
It is relieving to note that while the rest of India grapples with the idea of implementing a Uniform Civil Code, Goa inherited the Colonial Legislation which inculcated uniform applicability of the succession and inheritance laws among other appurtenant provisions.
Accordingly, the 22nd Law Commission of India vide notice dated June 14, 2023, has decided to solicit the views and ideas of the public at large and recognised religious organisations about the Uniform Civil Code. Consequently, it has called upon those institutions, individuals and organisations who demonstrate an interest and willingness to present their views, within 30 days from June 14, 2023.
Such is the state of Law Reforms in India that Goa has not to look into the Religious Scriptures or ascribe to the views of fundamentalist ideologies to determine the uniform applicability of its personal laws upon its subjects.
Section 1 of ‘The Goa Succession, Special Notaries and Inventory Proceeding Act, 2012’ envisages...
Short title, extent, commencement
and application
“(4) It shall be applicable to,”
(a) all persons who, prior to the 20th day of December 1961, were governed by the provisions of the Civil Code of 1867 as in force in erstwhile Portuguese regime over Goa and which continued in force by virtue of sub-section (1) of section 5 of the Goa, Daman and Diu (Administration) Act, 1962 (1 of 1962), as adapted by the Military Governor of Goa, Daman and Diu vide Order No. 175/2/MG dated May 31, 1962.”
Conclusion
The beneficial facilitation by the Supreme Court in promoting legal discourse through digital reporting of case laws and precedents is in consonance with Article 141 of the Constitution of India.
The Supreme Court Reports (e-SCR) project shall benefit the litigants, judges, members of the Bar, law colleges and universities, governmental institutions, law clerks and researchers, judicial academies, civic society and the public at large as it will facilitate access to the judgments of the Supreme Court, free of subscription or any other expense for the user.
Hence, the latest judicial precedents pertaining to the laws of Goa can be easily accessed through this revolutionary medium.
