A Hindu male with no living Hindu son, son's son or son's son's son adopts his sister's son, aged six,…

Under the uncodified Hindu law, a boy could not be adopted if the adopter could not lawfully have married the boy's mother. This bar, known as viruddha sambandha, ruled out adopting a sister's or daughter's son unless a custom allowed it. The Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 contains no such restriction. The requisites of a valid adoption are those set out in sections 6 to 11, and section 4 overrides any earlier text, rule, custom or usage on a matter the Act covers.

The adoption is therefore valid without the support of any custom. The Allahabad High Court, for example, upheld the adoption of a daughter's son in Abhishek Sharma v. State of U.P., AIR 2009 All 77. Court permission is needed only when a guardian gives the child in adoption (section 9(4)), not when the parents give him.