This article explains and answers the following questions:-
i) What is a Joint Hindu Family/Hindu Undivided Family as per the law ?
ii) The Joint Hindu Family Property ? who all have a right ?
iii) What is a Coparcenary ? and who all are Coparceners ?
iv) What do we mean by daughters being coparceners as well ?
v) The rights and obligations of coparceners ? Can a coparcenor sell/gift his interest in ancestral properties ?
vi) Who can seek a partition ?
vii) What is the difference between self acquired & ancestral properties ?
vi) Who is a karta? What are his rights & obligations ?
Concept of Joint Hindu Family or Hindu Undivided Family (HUF - A Tax term)
A Joint Hindu Family is the normal
condition of Hindu Society, or atleast it was until the last few
decades. A joint Hindu family is a group of relatives tied together by
ties of kinship & marriage and descended from a common ancestor. It
includes children, children's children down the line, spouses. A joint
Hindu Family is normally joint in worship/kitchen/business. Even
daughter in laws/widowed daughters who has returned back to their
parental side are part of a hindu joint family. A joint family may
encompass countless generations.
A joint family is headed by a karta who is normally the
eldest living male member of the family. Karta has some peculiar rights
and obligations under traditional Hindu Law, he has the power and duty
of superintendence of how the joint family is run, who is getting what
?, how the members are being maintained ? He is also entitled to dispose
off the property in times of dire need/necessity. After 2005 amendments
by which women have been given equal proprietary rights in ancestral
property even women can be Kartas.
A Coparcenory
Within the joint family there is a narrower body called the Coparcenary.
This includes the eldest male member + 3 generations. For
eg : Son – Father – Grandfather – Great Grandfather. This special group
of people are called coparcenors and have a definitive right in
ancestral property right since the moment of their conception. Earlier
only a Son/Son’s son/Son’s son’s son were coparcenors – now daughters
are equally coparcenors after 2005. They can get their share culled out
by filing a suit for partition at any time. A coparcenor’s interest is
not fixed it fluctuates by birth and deaths in the family.
Ancestral & Self Acquired properties
A property is ancestral when acquired through inheritance
from ancestors, this property is always shared by members of a
coparcenary equally. On the other hand property is self acquired if it
is earned by own efforts/learning or other human endeavour. In the
latter – the person acquiring is the sole owner and nobody exercises any
right on the same during his lifetime.
Partition
Any coparcenor can at anytime seek a partition of his
share. The continuing coparceners can seek to buy out the share of
coparcenor expressing his intention to move out by exercising the right
of ‘pre-emption’.
Can a Coparcenor sell/gift/dispose off his right in ancestral/coparcenary property?
Yes – a coparcenor can sell/gift away his interest to
another coparcenor or even a third party. However a third parties right
to take possession of property alongwith rest of coparcenary is limited.
The family can buy the third party out in order to maintain integrity
of the house and to prevent a stranger from getting in with the family.
This right is given by Transfer of Property Act as well as the Partition
Act.
Can a Karta dispose of coparcenary property without consent of the family/other coparceners?
Yes in cases of legal necessity/benefit of estate the
karta can alienate joint family property. However such an alienation can
be challenged by the continuing coparceners as not being for legal
necessity or benefit of estate within 12 years of knowledge of
sale/gift.
Author is a Supreme Court advocate
specialising in Property Laws and Joint Family affairs, with special
regard to Joint Family Property & Partition Cases.
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