Shubhankar Agnihotri has posted A Critical Analysis of Doctrine of Pious Obligation on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
In the Hindu legal system, literature and society considered repayment of debt a very important Act. It plays an important role at the time of death. In Hindu mythology, it is considered that if a person died without repaying his debt, then he will be born as a servant or slave in the house of his creditor. Hindu scholars and sages say that if a Hindu died without repaying his debt, then it is the duty of his son to repay the debt and discharge his father from the sin of debt. This mythology gave birth to pious obligation. ‘Pious’ means religious or moral and ‘Obligation’ means duty. The doctrine of pious obligation is the special type of liability on the son to pay back his father’s debt. In general terms son, grandson and great-grandson are liable to repay the debt of their father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. So we can say that the sole purpose of this doctrine is to discharge the father from the sin of non-payment of debt. When we talk about the debt the son is liable to pay only the Vyavharika (legally and morally obtained) debts if the debt is an Avyavharika (illegally and immorally) obtained then the son will not be liable to pay back the debt. Son can repay the debt of his father from the ancestral property which he holds. The main motive behind this obligation is that son succeeding certain rights and property and benefits from these rights and property then why should he not be liable for the repayment of the debt? It is the religious obligation of the male descendants to pay back the debt of their ancestors. As well as religious obligation this doctrine has some statutory perspectives also. Sidheshwar Mukherjee Vs. Bhubaneshwar Prasad Narayan1 was the first case related to the doctrine of pious obligation in this case court said that the doctrine of pious obligation has its root in the smritis and it is the duty of a son to repay the Vyavharika debt of his father. In this paper, we will analyze and discuss the doctrine of pious obligation and its applicability. We will understand and compare the doctrine of pious obligation pre and post-2005 (after the Hindu succession Amendment act 2005).
