AIR 1970 SUPREME COURT 1795

Supreme Court Of India

Hon'ble Judge(s): J. C. Shah, V. Ramaswami, A. N. Grover , JJJ

(A) Hindu Law - Impartible estate - Nature and incidents of - Junior members take no right in the property by birth - Right of survivorship however exists. The junior members of a joint family in the case of ancient impartible joint family estate take no right in the property by birth and have no right of partition having regard to the very nature of the estate that it is impartible. Secondly, they have no right to interdict alienation by the head of the family either for necessity or otherwise. This, of course, is subject to S. 4 of the Madras Impartible Estates Act in the case of impartible estates governed by the Act. The right of junior members of the family for maintenance is governed by custom and is not based upon any joint right or interest in the property as co-owners. The income of the impartible estate is the individual income of the holder of the estate and is not the income of the joint family. An impartible estate, though it may be an ancestral joint family estate, is clothed with the incidents of self-acquired and separate property to that extent. The only vestige of the incidents of joint family property, which still attaches to the joint family impartible estate is the right of survivorship which of course, is not inconsistent with the custom of impartibility. For the purpose of devolution of the property, the property is assumed to be joint....