Goa, May 19 -- The recent judg ment of the High Court of Bombay at Goa upholding the constitutional validity of the Goa Succession, Spe cial Notaries and Inventory Proceedings (Amendment) Acts of 2022 and 2023 has triggered a mixed response. In a significant ruling, the High Court confirmed that a surviving spouse would rank second in the order of intestate succession - im mediately after descend ants and ahead of ascend ants such as parents and grandparents. The amend ments effectively altered a long-standing succes sion framework inherited from the Portuguese Civil Code of 1867, under which the surviving spouse was placed much lower in the line of succession. The judgment has been widely viewed by legal experts as a decisive shift towar...