Part I : Principles of Hindu Law
Chapter I - Operation of Hindu Law
Chapter II - Sources of Hindu Law
Chapter III - General Principles of Inheritance
Chapter IV - Order of Inheritance of Males According to Mitakshara Law
Chapter V - Female Heirs
Chapter VI - Order of Succession to Males in the Bombay State
Chapter VII - Order of Inheritance to Males According to Dayabhaga or Bengal School
Chapter VIII - Points of Difference between Mitakshara and Dayabhaga Succession
Chapter IX - Exclusion from Inheritance and Partition
Chapter X - Women’s Property: Part I – Stridhana
Chapter XI - Women’s Property: Part II – Property Acquired by a Woman by Inheritance
Chapter XII - Joint Hindu Family Coparceners and Coparcenary Property – Mitakshara Law
Chapter XIII - Coparceners and Coparcenary Property under Dayabhaga Law
Chapter XIV - Debts Mitakshara Law
Chapter XV - Debts - Dayabhaga Law
Chapter XVI - Partition and Reunion - Mitakshara Law
Chapter XVII - Partition - Dayabhaga Law
Chapter XVIII - Gifts
Chapter XIX - Wills
Chapter XX - Rules Common to Gifts and Wills
Chapter XXI - Religious and Charitable Endowments
Chapter XXII - Marriage
Chapter XXIII - Adoption
Chapter XXIV - Minority and Guardianship
Chapter XXV - Maintenance
Chapter XXVI - Conversion from Hinduism, Khojas, Cutchi, Memons and Some Others
Chapter XXVII - Impartible Property
Chapter XXVIII - The Law of Damdupat
Chapter XXIX - Benami Transactions
Chapter XXX - Jains
Chapter XXXI - Shudras
Part II
The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955
Introductory Note
The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955
Chapter I - Preliminary
Chapter II - Hindu Marriages
Chapter III - Restitution of Conjugal Rights and Judicial Separation
Chapter IV - Nullity of Marriage and Divorce
Chapter V - Jurisdiction and Procedure
Chapter VI - Savings and Repeals
The Hindu Succession Act 1956
Introductory Note
The Hindu Succession Act, 1956
Chapter I - Preliminary
Chapter II - Intestate Succession
Chapter III - Testamentary Succession
Chapter IV - Repeals
The Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956
Introductory Note
The Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956
The Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act 1956
Introductory Note
The Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956
Chapter I - Preliminary
Chapter II - Adoption
Chapter III - Maintenance
Chapter IV - Repeals and Savings
Appendix
Appendix I - The Hindu Disposition of Property Act 1916
Appendix II - The Hindu Inheritance (Removal of Disabilities) Act 1928
Appendix III - The Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929
Appendix IV - The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006
Appendix V - The Hindu Gains of Learning Act, 1930
Appendix V - The Hindu Women’s Rights to Property Act 1937
Appendix VI - The Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988

The commentary and indeed, the legal fraternity of India, is also beholden to the brilliance and legal acuity of the late Justice ST Desai, a former judge of the Bombay High Court, then the first Chief Justice of the High Court of Gujarat and thereafter, a very respected Senior Counsel in the Supreme Court of India, for close to three decades, upon whom the mantle fell to carry forward the work of revising this book. At the time when ST Desai, wrote the revised commentary, the task of penning a commentary to the new acts on Hindu Succession, Marriage. Adoptions and Maintenance, and Minority and Guardianship, also fell upon his shoulders, as these acts had come into effect. By then, he was already, besides being a well-known lawyer and later a judge of the Bombay High Court. established as the author of his brilliant commentary on the Law of Partnership in India. His carrying forward the commentary and revising the book added to the lustre of this book on legal firmament. I shall not dwell much upon the fact that the commentary has, time and again, proven useful to the whole of the legal fraternity and that various segments of the commentary and topics discussed, have found a place in many important judgments of the Supreme Court and the High Courts, and that many a judgment has, in fact, relied upon this commentary. That is the great respect and recognition that this book commands because of the in depth analysis of this branch of law, as a result of those venerable legal luminaries Sir D F Mulla and Justice ST Desai. Nor will I dwell long upon the aspect of how this commentary has traced legal developments oments in the field of its operation. For the reader interested in that, I would, apart from the commentary and analysis of law therein, draw attention to the seminally brilliant work evident in the Introduction at the beginning of the book, penned by Justice ST Desai, which has been an integral part of the book since the 12th Edition and my own minor contribution, in explaining the origins of this branch of law by way o some portion included in the preface to the 17th edition ---provided by publisher