KOTTAYAM: She fought a four-decade-long legal battle to ensure equal succession rights for women belonging to the Christian community. Mary Roy, 89, who passed away in Kottayam on Thursday morning, was not just a women's rights activist. She was an academician and a champion of gender equality. Mother of Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy, Mary had established Corpus Christi School in Kottayam, which was later renamed Pallikkoodam School.
Born in a Syrian Christian family, Mary Roy realised the perils in the lives of Christian women when she was asked to vacate her home in Ooty after the death of her father.
Her father P V Isaac was an entomologist. Born in 1933, Mary Roy had her schooling in Delhi and completed her college studies at Queens Mary College in Chennai. She married Rajib Roy while working in Calcutta. Due to marital issues she returned to her father's house in Ooty. A property dispute with her brother George Isaac forced her to approach the court
On February 24, 1986, Mary won a long-standing legal battle for succession right over the property of her father. As per the Travancore Syrian Christian Succession Act, 1916 and Cochin Succession Act 1921, a woman was not entitled to inherit a share of the family property if the father in his will does not specify a share for her. She may get only one-fourth of the value of the share of the son or Rs 5,000, whichever was less. A widow who returned to her parental home could enjoy the ancestral property until she died or remarried. Since Mary’s father did not leave behind a will, she approached the court
“My battle was not for a piece of property, but to ensure that women in this country enjoy the rights guaranteed by the Constitution,” Mary Roy said after winning the Succession case. She is survived by her daughter Arundhati Roy and son Lalit Roy