Hindu Undivided Family
Supreme Court in Civil Appeal No 6875 of 2008 titled Bhagwat Sharan v/s Purushottam & ors dated
dated 03.04.2020 has relied upon the following judgment on HUF
1. Bhagwan Dayal vs. Reoti Devi AIR 1962 SC 287
“In this case
this Court held that the general principle is that a Hindu family is presumed
to be joint unless the contrary is proved. It was further held that where one
of the coparceners separated himself from other members of the joint family
there was no presumption that the rest of coparceners continued to constitute a
joint family. However, it was also held that at the same time there is no
presumption that because one member of the family has separated, the rest of
the family is no longer a joint family.”
2. Bhagwati Prasad Sah and Ors. V/s
Dulhin Rameshwari Kuer and Ors. (1951) 2 SCR 603, it held as follows:-
“…. Except in
the case of reunion, the mere fact that separated coparceners chose to live
together or act jointly for purposes of business or trade or in their dealings
with properties, would not give them the status of coparceners under the
Mitakshara law.”
3. The Privy Council in
Appalaswami v. Suryanarayanamurti I.L.R. 1948 Mad.440 held as follows:
"The
Hindu law upon this aspect of the case is well settled. Proof of the existence
of a joint family does not lead to the presumption that property held by any
member of the family is joint, and the burden rests upon anyone asserting that
any item of property was joint to establish the fact. But where it is
established that the family possessed some joint property which from its nature
and relative value may have formed the nucleus from which the property in
question may have been acquired, the burden shifts to the party alleging
self-acquisition to establish affirmatively that the property was acquired
without the aid of the joint family property”
4 D.S. Lakshmaiah and Ors. V/s.
L. Balasubramanyam and Ors. (2003) 10 SCC 310this Court held as follows:
“The legal
principle, therefore, is that there is no presumption of a property being joint
family property only on account of existence of a joint Hindu family. The one
who asserts has to prove that the property is a joint family property. If,
however, the person so asserting proves that there was nucleus with which the
joint family property could be acquired, there would be presumption of the
property being joint and the onus would shift on the person who claims it to be
self-acquired property to prove that he purchased the property with his own
funds and not out of joint family nucleus that was available.”
Similar view
was taken in Mst Rukhmabai v. Lala Laxminarayan and Others. (1960) 2 SCR 253
and Appasaheb Peerappa Chamdgade v. Devendra Peerappa Chamdgade(2007) 1 SCC 521
The law is
thus well settled that the burden lies upon the person who alleges the
existence of the Hindu Undivided Family to prove the same.
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