Radhamma & Ors. v. H.N. Muddukrishna & Ors.
Background
The appellants, descendants of a Hindu joint family, sued in 1976 claiming a 1/10th share in various joint family properties. The trial court had partly ruled in their favour on some properties, but the High Court, in a first appeal, held that the family patriarch had validly bequeathed his undivided coparcenary share by a registered Will executed in 1962 (he died in 1965), and so reversed the finding that the appellants had any share in those properties.
Decision Breakdown
The appellants argued the Will was suspicious because it surfaced only when the suit was filed years later, and that even if valid, it could not wipe out their own independent share as family members. The Supreme Court held that under Section 30 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 (which came into force before the testator's death), a male Hindu coparcener is legally entitled to dispose of his undivided interest in Mitakshara joint family property by Will: an exception to the older rule against alienating such interests. Since the Will's due execution had already been concurrently proved by both the trial court and High Court under the Evidence Act, and the appellants had no independent share apart from what would devolve from the testator's share, the Supreme Court found no error in the High Court's judgment and dismissed the appeal.
Lesson Learnt
Since 1956, a Hindu family member's undivided share in ancestral joint family property is not frozen for automatic inheritance by relatives: the law specifically allows that person to will away their share, and once a Will's execution is properly proved in court, other family members cannot claim a competing share in that same portion.