Coparcenary - Indian Laws - General

The Supreme Court in Bhagwan Dayal v. Reoti Devi (Mst.) [ 1961 (9) TMI 90 - SUPREME COURT] , After discussing the various decisions and the tests, the learned judge summarises the legal position as follows (at page 304) : ...........The legal position may be stated thus : Coparcenary is a creature of Hindu law and cannot be ,created by agreement of parties except in the case of reunion. It is a corporate body or a family unit. The law also recognizes a branch of the family as a subordinate corporate body. The said family unit, whether the larger one or the subordinate one, can acquire, hold and dispose of family property subject to the limitations laid down by law. Ordinarily, the manager, or by consent, express or implied, of the members of the family, any other member or members can carry on business or acquire property, subject to the limitations laid down by the said law, for or, on behalf of the family. Such business or property would be the business or property, of the, family. The identity of the members of the, family is not completely last in the family. One or more - members of :that family can start a business or acquire property without the aid of the joint family Property, but such business or acquisition would his or their acquisition.......... In State of Maharashtra v. Narayan Rao Sham Rao Deshmukh [ 1985 (3) TMI 61 -] the Supreme Court observed (at page 36) : A Hindu coparcenary is, however, a narrower body than the joint family. Only males who acquire by birth an interest in the joint or coparcenary property can be members of the coparcenary or coparceners. A male member of a joint family and his sons, grandsons and great grandsons constitute a coparcenary. A coparcener acquires a right in the coparcenary property by birth but his right can be definitely ascertained only when a partition takes place. When the family is joint, the extent of the share of a coparcener cannot be definitely predicted since it is always capable of fluctuating. It increases by the death of a coparcener and decreases on the birth of a coparcener. A joint family, however, may consist of female members. It may consist of a male member, his wife, his mother and his unmarried daughters. The property of a joint family does not cease to belong to the family merely because there is only a single male member in the family . . . . under the Mitakshara Hindu law, there is community of ownership and unity of possession of joint family property with all the members of the coparcenary. . . .