Mary Roy, educator and champion of gender equality, passes away

The mother of Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy, Mary was known for winning a landmark Supreme Court case in 1986 that ensured equal rights in family property for women belonging to the Syrian Christian community in Kerala.

Mary Roy had challenged the provisions of the Travancore Succession Act, 1916 and Cochin Succession Act, 1921, which the Syrian Christian community followed. As per the Acts, women in a family were eligible for one quarter of the son’s share or Rs 5,000, whichever was less, if the father died intestate. Mary challenged this, pointing out that members of the community elsewhere in the country were governed by provisions of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, and moved against her brother George Isaac.

Mary Roy is the mother of Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy.

However, it was in 2010, 24 years after the Supreme Court’s historical judgment, that a sub-court in Kottayam executed the final decree in favour of Mary and she got a share of the family property, spread across different locations. Of the 27 cents of property, Roy got two portions, her sister Molly three and her brother John’s widow Elaine Singleton one piece. “My 50-year battle has finally yielded results. The fight was not for a piece of land, but to win women’s rights guaranteed by the Constitution,” she had reacted then.

Roy had filed a petition in the Kottayam sub-court, seeking her share of the property, which her father had left behind after his death in 1960. The case eventually led to the landmark Supreme Court verdict.

Mary Roy was born in an aristocratic family in Kottayam. Her father, P V Isaac, trained in England and went on to become an entomologist at Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Bihar. After completing her education in Delhi and Madras, Mary Roy moved to Kolkata, where her eldest brother Isaac had been employed. Here, she met Rajeeb Roy, whom she married later. The couple moved to Assam where Rajeeb had worked as a manager with a tea estate and had two children, Lalith and Arundhati.

Later, Mary separated from her husband and returned to Kerala with her children. She then moved to Ooty in Tamil Nadu where her father had a cottage. Her eldest brother Isaac wanted her to vacate the house saying he was the inheritor of the property and this led to the legal fight that reached the apex court.

She founded the Pallikoodam school (formerly Corpus Christi High School) in Kottayam.