| Family Law-I

Family Law is taught in two core courses, as suggested by the Bar Council of India. Family Law I deals with marriage, divorce, adoption, guardianship and custody, and maintenance. It also touches upon some key, prevailing debates within family law in India. Family Law II covers succession, testamentary and intestate succession, gifts, and religious endowments. As such this has been excluded from the present course.

Family Law I is divided into 5 modules.

Module 1 introduces key concepts underlying the study of family law. It traverses critiques and defenses of the family as an institution, the evolving understandings of families, sources of family law (including custom), the exceptional status granted to ‘personal laws’ in India, and how ‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’ are commonly understood.

Module 2 examines laws on marriage and divorce. It begins by looking critically at the institution of marriage. It then moves to understanding marriage, and its dissolution, under Hindu and Muslim law, including grounds for divorce.

Module 3 explores certain rights and obligations emerging out of marriage (and its dissolution). Through doctrinal and theoretical study, it looks specifically at themes of guardianship and custody of children (nationally and internationally), and maintenance of partners on divorce.

Module 4 briefly looks at the rules governing adoption in India, under family law.

Module 5 concludes by drawing the themes studied together. For this, it looks at three debates central to family law in India: the adoption of a Uniform Civil Code, the legal response to violence against women, and resolution of disputes in family courts.