Succession — Joint Hindu Family Presumption · 17 September 2026

Krishni Devi v. Baladatt: No Presumption of a Joint Hindu Family Merely Because Brothers Inherited Property Jointly

High Court of Madhya Pradesh · 2026 LiveLaw (MP) 370; F.A. No. 280 of 2003

Two brothers sued their sister and her husband, seeking a declaration that the Will of their deceased third brother in favour of one plaintiff was void, a declaration of ownership over various lands, and an injunction. The Trial Court excluded the sister from the property on the footing that the brothers formed a Hindu Undivided Family. Five survey numbers had been inherited jointly from their father, who died before the Hindu Succession Act, 1956; the third brother later acquired further survey numbers in his own name. The plaintiffs said two brothers had worked in Rishikesh and sent him money to buy these, but produced no documents of the remittances or contributions. The sister appealed.

Justice Vivek Jain held there is no automatic presumption that property inherited jointly by children becomes joint Hindu family property, or that later acquisitions are joint family property; joint entries in revenue records show only unpartitioned co-ownership with distinct shares. The plaint itself did not plead a joint Hindu family, and no evidence of one or of a joint nucleus was led, so the five survey numbers the third brother acquired were his individual property. The Court also found the unregistered, notarised Will made about five days before his death suspicious and upheld its invalidity. His share in the father's property therefore devolved equally, one-third each, on the two plaintiffs and the sister, and the first appeal was partly allowed.

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