KOTTAYAM: Eminent education expert and social activist Mary Roy (89) has passed away. She was under treatment for a long time due to illness. Her husband is late Rajeeb Roy. Famous writer and Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy and Lalit Roy are her children.

Mary was most notable for her struggles against the Travancore Syrian Christian Succession Act of 1916. Mary’s struggle paved the way for the ruling that ensured equal rights for daughters in inheritance. In 1986, the Supreme Court passed this historic verdict. Mary is also the founder of Pallikkoodam School in Kottayam. Mary implemented a school environment and learning culture that did not follow traditional models through the church.

Mary Roy was born in Kottayam’s Aymanam in 1933, as the daughter of PV Isaac and granddaughter of John Kurien, the founder of Rao Bahadur John Kurien School, Kottayam’s first school. Her schooling was at Delhi Jesus Mary Convent. She graduated from Queen Mary’s College, Chennai. She married Rajeeb Roy, a Bengali whom she met while working as a secretary in a company in Kolkata.