Categorisation of

Properties
By: Ms Manan Dardi
Email id: manan.dardi@vips.edu
Introduction

• Under Hindu law the property that a Hindu male may possess, can be
of two types:

1. his acquisition in his individual capacity, that can be described as his

exclusively owned or separate property, and

2. share in joint family property or coparcenary property, that he holds

with other members of the family.
Separate Property or Self Acquired
Property
• Property acquired by a Hindu male or female or coparcener
or a non-coparcener in his or her individual capacity or
through individual efforts and without detriment to the
coparcenary property is called separate property.
Cont…

• All property other than joint family or coparcenary property is separate property.

• He enjoys absolute powers of disposal over it.

• No one can ask for its partition or control its disposal in any manner.

• On his death the property will go as per the laws of inheritance or testamentary
succession (in case he leaves behind a will) and not by the doctrine of
survivorship, as no person can claim a right by birth in this property.
Features of Separate Property
• Every Hindu can own separate property. It is not necessary that he or she must be member of
Hindu joint family. Even a single individual, male or female, can possess separate property.

• The owner enjoys an absolute ownership over the property, with absolute power over its
disposal, inter vivos or through a Will. No one else can either claim any right of partition or
ownership or possession over it, including even the son of the owner without his consent.
The right of the son over the separate property of the father can be described as a mere spes
successionis, that is, the chance of an heir to succeed to the property of the father.
Cont…
• In separate property owner alone has the right to possess and enjoy it does no one else can claim
to have a right to possess and enjoy it without his permission of a title holder.

• On the death of the owner the separate property of a person goes by inheritance or intestate
succession or by testamentary succession in case he dies after making a Will the doctrine of
survivorship does not apply to separate property at all.

• The separate property of a person can be converted into coparcenary property by a coparcener
without the consent of other coparceners by a voluntary and intentional act of throwing in the
property into the common joint family stock.
Cont…

• A female in general is incapable of throwing in her properties into the

joint family pool but he has been held that she can make a gift of her
separate property is to joint family as a whole and in that case the
property so gifted would become a coparcenary or joint family
property. (Satyendra Kumar v. Commissioner of Income Tax,
(1983) 140 ITR 840).
Sources of Separate Property
• Property inherited as obstructed heritage
• Gift of his self acquired property by father to his son if the father intends that son will
take it as his separate property.
• Property acquired through is learning or special skills.
• Property received by way of a prize or scholarship;
• Government grants
• Income from the separate property or sell separate earning or earning by self exertion.
• Benefits of insurance policy
• Gains of learning
• Salary and renumerations
Joint Family Property (Coparcenary
Property)
• Joint family or coparcenary property is that property in which every
coparcener has a joint interest or right and over that property, the
coparcener has a joint possession. Or we can also say that the joint
family property is the property which is jointly acquired by the
member of the family with the aid of ancestral property.
Types/ Sources of Joint Family Property

• Joint family ancestral property

• Property acquired with aid/assistance of a ancestral property (Doctrine of

Accretion)

• Property acquired at the cost of ancestral property (Doctrine of Detriment)

• Separate property of a coparcener which is voluntarily thrown by him into the

common stock to such an extent that it cannot be distinguished from joint family
property (Doctrine of Blending)
Joint Family Ancestral Property

• The term ‘ancestor’ is not used in a general or broad sense, but refers
to three immediate paternal ancestors in a whole male line, that is,
father, grandfather, and  great-grandfather. With respect to the
devolution of this property, where the property comes to the joint
family with inheritance from these three ancestors or in some cases
even by will it will be termed as joint family ancestral property.
Doctrine of Accretion

• Accumulations and accretions of income of ancestral property are

ancestral property. So also property purchased or acquired out of the
income or with the assistance of ancestral property would be ancestral
property. Property purchased out of sale proceeds of ancestral property
is also ancestral property.
Doctrine of Detriment
• Property acquired at the cost of ancestral property.
Doctrine of Blending

• Separate property of a coparcener which is voluntarily thrown by him

into the common stock to such an extent that it cannot be distinguished
from joint family property.
Unobstructed Heritage (Apratibandhadaya)

• Ancestral property is unobstructed heritage. The essential feature of

unobstructed heritage, according to Mitakshara Law is that the sons,
grandsons and great grandsons acquire an inherit in the property
inherited by birth. Their rights attach to it by their birth. The property
is called unobstructed because the accrual of the right to it is not
obstructed by the existence of the owner.
Obstructed Heritage

• Property inherited by a Hindu from a person other than his father, grandfa­ther
or great grandfather is obstructed heritage. It is called ob­structed because the
accrual of the rights to it is obstructed by the existence of the owner.

• The owner holds it as his separate and absolute property. The relations of the
owner do not take a vested interest in it by birth. They are entitled to it only on
the death of the owner. Thus the property which devolves on parents, brothers,
uncles, nephews, etc. on the death of the last owner is obstructed heritage.
Thank You