Published Paper Details:

Customary law constitutes a prominent part of the culture, especially in North East India ie the tribal society. There is also an interesting interest in the customary law of tribal societies. Customary Laws are the customs, traditional practices, and rules followed by the tribal society from time immemorial. It reflects and represents the distinct a unique features of a tribe because customary law differs from tribe to tribe. If we investigate the definition of customary law there is no accepted definition, Customary laws include principles or values rules, and code of conduct, and established economic practices. They are enforced by community institutions and can have sanctions attached. They are locally recognized. Orally held, adaptable, and evolving (Swiderska,2009). The present paper aims to study the customary laws relating to women's inheritance and marriage in the Lotha tribe in Nagaland. The primary source was collected through the interview method and for secondary source it was relied on studies that were conducted on similar papers relating to tribal areas. The Lotha society is patriarchal and patrilineal so according to Customary law dealing with property rights in traditional Lotha society it was the son who inherits the immovable property. Women had less say when it came to property inheritance. The daughters have no share in it. In the absence of sons to inherit the father's property, then the properties are divided among the father's immediate relatives. All properties are exclusively inheritable, both movable and immovable goods, according to the Lotha custom. Women can purchase any property by using the money given by their parents or self-earned money. Yet her sons can only inherit those properties. In no case or condition, these properties can be diverted back to her parents or to their family members. (Athungo,2015:140) Equality and equal treatment of genders have become universally accepted norms. The women's rights movement has gone through a long struggle to achieve this recognition. More efforts are needed to ensure the proper implementation of equality and equal treatment of genders. There is a question of whether customary law relating to gender should be discarded and given up in order to achieve gender equality.