Partition and re-union

Two brothers run a textile shop in Bhiwandi with their father’s old capital. One wants to expand, the other wants out. They can keep arguing, or they can divide the family assets and go their separate ways. Hindu law calls that step partition. It ends the joint status of the family, fixes each person’s share and decides who gets what. Some families later reunite, and the law has a special rule for that too. This topic also asks a larger question: why did the joint family last so long, and how do modern statutes and tax laws treat it?

In two minutes

Partition ends the jointness of a Hindu family by severing status and, usually, dividing property; it can be demanded by a coparcener, it must be proved, a registered deed or court decree is needed for it to count under section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, and re-union is the rare restoration of joint status among those who partitioned.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Family Law – II on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.