The Supreme Court has clarified that the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 (HSA) does not apply to members of Scheduled Tribes, setting aside a 2015 Himachal Pradesh High Court order that extended the Act’s provisions to daughters from tribal communities in the state.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and Prashant Kumar Mishra ruled that the High Court’s directions were “contrary to law and beyond the scope of the case.” The bench pointed out that under Section 2(2) of the HSA, the law explicitly excludes members of Scheduled Tribes from its purview unless the Central Government issues a notification stating otherwise, Live Law reported .

The court said that “no such notification has been issued denotifying any tribal community in Himachal Pradesh, including the Sawara tribe,” and therefore, t

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