4 Development in Nepal

Family relations were codified in the Muluki Ain of 1854, which organised them by status and by religious community. The Muluki Civil Code of 1963 began the move towards a single set of rules, and the Civil Code of 2017 completed much of it: marriage requires registration and the consent of both parties, the grounds for divorce are stated, partition and inheritance are regulated, and the property rights of daughters and wives were progressively widened by amendment. The direction is from status to contract, and from community-specific rules to a general law — with exceptions that remain contested.