Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 deals with the devolution of interest in Coparcenary Property amongst the members of the Coparcenary. What do you understand by Hindu Mitakshara Coparcenary?

Question: Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 deals with the devolution of interest in Coparcenary Property amongst the members of the Coparcenary. What do you understand by Hindu Mitakshara Coparcenary?

Find the question and answer of Hindu Law only on Legal Bites. [Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 deals with the devolution of interest in Coparcenary Property amongst the members of the Coparcenary. What do you understand by Hindu Mitakshara Coparcenary?]

Answer

Hindu Mitakshara is one of the oldest schools in Hindu law. This School governs the rules of succession of property in a Hindu family. Hindu Mitakshara Coparcenary states that an ancestral property of a Hindu is devolved up to three generations from the son to grand-son to great-grandson and this devolution is acquired only by birth.

In the case of Sudarshan v. Narasimhulu,(1902) ILR 25 Mad 149, it was held that

"coparcenary is the creation of law and a person acquires an interest in coparcenary by birth. No one can become a coparcener by marriage or other arrangements."

In the case of Rohit Chauhan v. Surinder Singh and Ors, (2013) 9 SC C 419 the SC held that

"Coparcenary property means the property which consists of ancestral property and a coparcener would mean a person who shares equally with others in inheritance in the estate of a common ancestor. Coparcenary is a narrower body than the Joint Hindu family and before the commencement of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, only male members of the family used to acquire by birth an interest in the coparcenary property. A coparcener has no definite share in the coparcenary property but he has an undivided interest in it and one has to bear in mind that it enlarges by deaths and diminishes by births in the family."

Characteristic Features of Mitakshara Coparcenary

(1) Unity of ownership - The essential feature of a Mitakshara coparcenary property is the unity of ownership, i.e., the ownership of property is not vested in a single coparcener. It is vested in the whole body of the coparcenary. According to the true notion of an undivided family governed by the Mitakshara law, no individual member of that family whilst it remains undivided, can predicate, of the joint and undivided property, that he has a definite share.

In Thammavenkat Subbamma v. Thamma Ratamma, AIR 1987 S.C. 1775, the Supreme Court affirming the above view held that the essential feature of Mitakshara coparcenary is the unity of ownership and community of interest. No coparcener has any definite share in the coparcenary property although his undivided share is existent there, which increases with the death and decreases with the birth of any coparcener. The coparcener acquires an interest in coparcenary property by birth, which is equal to that of his father.

(2) Indeterminability of shares -The interest of a coparcener in the coparcenary property is a fluctuating interest that is liable to diminish with the birth and bound to increase with the death of any coparcener in the family. So long the family remains united, no individual coparcener can predicate that he has a definite share in the property of the family. In Commissioner of Gift-tax v. N.S. Getty Chettiar, AIR 1971 S.C. 410, the Court upholding the above view held that so long the family remains undivided, no individual coparcener can claim any specific share in the joint family property. All the coparceners are the owners of the entire joint family property. Their shares can be specified only after the partition is effected in the joint family. 

(3) Community of interest -There is a community of interest in coparcenary property. The moment a person is born in the family, he acquires an interest in the coparcenary property in the sense that he has a right of common enjoyment and common use of all the properties because as soon as he is born as a son, he assumes the membership of the community. It also signifies that no coparcener is entitled to any special interest in the coparcenary property, nor is he entitled to exclusive possession of any part of the property.

(4) Right of females - In Mitakshara coparcenary no female can be its member, though they are members of a joint family. Even the wife who is entitled to maintenance enjoys only the right to maintenance but she can never become a coparcener. Section 6 of the Hindu Succession ( Amendment) Act, 2005 brings the discrimination against the daughter to an end, as her rights and liabilities are the same as that of a son which implies that the daughters are now capable of acquiring an interest in the coparcenary property, demand a partition of the same and dispose of it through a testamentary disposition. In other words, all the prerogative and uniqueness of a son's position in the family is available to a daughter as well.

(5) Devolution not by Survivorship - Section 6(3) of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) states that the interest of a coparcener in the joint family property devolves on his death by testamentary or intestate succession under the Hindu Succession Act and not by survivorship.

(6) Right of maintenance - All the members of the coparcenary are entitled to maintenance by birth out of the joint family property. They continue to enjoy this right so long as the coparcenary subsists. Where any member fails to get any share on the coparcenary property even after partition he retains the right of maintenance. Some special provisions have to be made for them at the time of partition. Female members and other male members who do not get a share in the partition such as unmarried daughters, idiots, or lunatics, are entitled to maintenance out of the joint family property. Unmarried daughters have a right to be married out of joint family funds.

• Hindu Law – Notes, Case Laws, And Study Material
• Test Series for Competitions