Q. In a Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) can the children of daughter be the coparcener of maternal grandfather like that of the children of brother becoming coparcener in the HUF of paternal grandfather?
A property owned by a Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) is the property of HUF. Acquiring of properties from various sources i.e. on partition, by way of gift, through will, accretion to the existing properties, blending, by joint labour will come under HUF.A Hindu male if marries to a Hindu females automatically creates a HUF which becomes a distinct tax entity.Coparcenaries generally speaking means persons who acquire interest by birth in a joint family property. They will be the son, grandson and great-grandson of the holder of the property. Section 6 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 states that a non-resident can be a HUF.
A Hindu Undivided Family would be a joint family even after the Hindu Succession Act was amended but female heirs on the basis of deemed partition of deceased coparceners shall get the sameright over their father’s share.Under HUF some members are designated as coparceners and but all members are not coparceners.
From September 9, 2005 when Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act 2005 was enacted daughters were also considered as coparceners and property shall be allotted to her as given to sons.Daughter even after marriage will remain a coparcener in her father’s as well as a member in the husband’s HUF. Here son of daughter comes under Class 1 heir as stated under the Act and thus he would be liable to be a coparcener of maternal grandfather’s HUF. In Smt. Bhagirathi and Others v. S. Manivanan and Anr case madras Court held that Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act considers a daughter to be a coparcener only if her father was a coparcener when the amended act came into force.The words son, grandson or great-grandson has been added to all who were born before to the commencement of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005. Hindu joint family consists upto 4 generations who acquire an interest in the Coparcenary property by birth. Since daughter has been given the right as coparcener along with son here daughter’s daughter will come under 4 generations and thus share of the pre-deceased daughter shall be given to the children of such daughter as the case may be is explained under Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act 2005. Section 10 of the Act states that the children of the pre-deceased daughter shall get equal portions in the share of the property.The Basic objective of the Act was to remove the gender discrimination that was in existence under the Hindu Law where daughters were not given the status of coparceners under Mitakshara Joint Family.
by Sushma Javare