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Showing contexts for: common hotchpotch in Mrs. Santosh Vishweshwarnath Wadhwa vs Mr. Gulshan Chhabra & Ors. on 29 April, 2016Matching Fragments
6. The second exception of Section 4(3) of the Benami Act of existence of an HUF is also found not to be pleaded as a complete cause of action in the plaint. No doubt, the plaintiff pleads in para 1 of the plaint that plaintiff and defendants along with the father Sh. Hari Chand Chabra formed an HUF, but in law, HUF is a specific concept which has to be pleaded exhaustively as per Order VI Rule 4 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC) and taking note of Section 8 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 as pronounced upon by the Supreme Court in the cases of Commissioner of Wealth Tax, Kanpur and Others Vs. Chander Sen and Others, (1986) 3 SCC 567 and Yudhishter Vs. Ashok Kumar, (1987) 1 SCC 204. As per these judgments inheritance of a property by a male person after 1956 does not result in creation of an HUF and the property inherited is an HUF property only as per the position of inheritance before 1956. I have dealt with these aspects extensively in the judgment in the case of Sh. Surender Kumar Vs. Sh. Dhani Ram and Others 222 (2016) DLT 217 and have observed that whenever a suit for partition is filed pleading existence of an HUF and its properties there have to be clear cut pleadings in view of Order VI Rule 4 CPC and also the effect of passing of the Benami Act, specifically as to how an HUF is created i.e whether before 1956 on account of inheritance of ancestral property or after 1956 when a particular property is thrown into common hotchpotch by reference to the time/date etc when it was so done. None of these averments are found in the plaint and therefore, applying the ratio of the judgment of Sh. Surender Kumar's case (supra), the suit is to be dismissed with respect to the property at 188, Kohat Enclave, Pitampura, Delhi 110034 inasmuch as no pleading exists for the suit to fall within the two exceptions as contained in Section 4(3) of the Benami Act. The relevant paras of the judgment in the case of Sh.
(ii) The only way in which a Hindu Undivided Family/joint Hindu family can come into existence after 1956 (and when a joint Hindu family did not exist prior to 1956) is if an individual‟s property is thrown into a common hotchpotch. Also, once a property is thrown into a common hotchpotch, it is necessary that the exact details of the specific date/month/year etc of creation of an HUF for the first time by throwing a property into a common hotchpotch have to be clearly pleaded and mentioned and which requirement is a legal requirement because of Order VI Rule 4 CPC which provides that all necessary factual details of the cause of action must be clearly stated. Thus, if an HUF property exists because of its such creation by throwing of self-acquired property by a person in the common hotchpotch, consequently there is entitlement in coparceners etc to a share in such HUF property.
(emphasis is mine) 7(i). As per the ratio of the Supreme Court in the case of Yudhishter (supra) after passing of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 the position which traditionally existed with respect to an automatic right of a person in properties inherited by his paternal predecessors-in-interest from the latter‟s paternal ancestors upto three degrees above, has come to an end. Under the traditional Hindu Law whenever a male ancestor inherited any property from any of his paternal ancestors upto three degrees above him, then his male legal heirs upto three degrees below him had a right in that property equal to that of the person who inherited the same. Putting it in other words when a person „A‟ inherited property from his father or grandfather or great grandfather then the property in his hand was not to be treated as a self-acquired property but was to be treated as an HUF property in which his son, grandson and great grandson had a right equal to „A‟. After passing of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, this position has undergone a change and if a person after 1956 inherits a property from his paternal ancestors, the said property is not an HUF property in his hands and the property is to be taken as a self-acquired property of the person who inherits the same. There are two exceptions to a property inherited by such a person being and remaining self-acquired in his hands, and which will be either an HUF and its properties was existing even prior to the passing of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 and which Hindu Undivided Family continued even after passing of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, and in which case since HUF existed and continued before and after 1956, the property inherited by a member of an HUF even after 1956 would be HUF property in his hands to which his paternal successors-in-interest upto the three degrees would have a right. The second exception to the property in the hands of a person being not self-acquired property but an HUF property is if after 1956 a person who owns a self-acquired property throws the self-acquired property into a common hotchpotch whereby such property or properties thrown into a common hotchpotch become Joint Hindu Family properties/HUF properties. In order to claim the properties in this second exception position as being HUF/Joint Hindu Family properties/properties, a plaintiff has to establish to the satisfaction of the court that when (i.e date and year) was a particular property or properties thrown in common hotchpotch and hence HUF/Joint Hindu Family created.
(ii) In fact, on a query put to the counsels for the parties, counsels for parties state before this Court that Sh. Gugan Singh expired in the year 2008 whereas Sh. Tek Chand died in 1982. Therefore, if Sh. Tek Chand died in 1982, inheriting of properties by Sh. Gugan Singh from Sh. Tek Chand would be self- acquired in the hands of Sh. Gugan Singh in view of the ratio of the Supreme Court in the case of Yudhister (supra) inasmuch as there is no case of the plaintiffs of HUF existing before 1956 or having been created after 1956 by throwing of property/properties into common hotchpotch either by Sh. Tek Chand or by Sh. Gugan Singh/defendant no.1. There is not even a whisper in the pleadings of the plaintiffs, as also in the affidavit by way of evidence filed in support of their case of PW1 Smt. Poonam, as to the specific date/period/month/year of creation of an HUF by Sh. Tek Chand or Sh. Gugan Singh after 1956 throwing properties into common hotchpotch.