TMI Blog1948 (2) TMI 16X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... w of Radhavallabh, who died on 9th March, 1943, and who had carried on a business in partnership with his three brothers, Gangaram, Premnarayan and Rangilal till his death. Their firm had been constituted by a deed of partnership and used to be annually registered for income-tax purposes. Radhavallabh left him surviving, besides his widow Kesar Bai, two minor sons, Shrinivas and Laxminiwas, who are members of a joint Hindu family. Soon after the demise of Radhavallabh, his widow and the three surviving brothers entered into a fresh agreement of partnership whereby they agreed to carry on the business as partners with equal shares. The deed of partnership expressly describes her as a partner in her capacity as manager of the family of the he ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ugh no adult male has been left in the family. The contention is, in our opinion, too widely stated and, so far as we know, there is no authority under Hindu law to support it. Mr. V. R. Sen, advocate for the applicant, has drawn our attention to a decision of the Madras High Court in Seetha Bai v. Narasimha Shet and has placed his reliance mainly or certain observations of Kuppuswami Ayyar, J., at page 570. They are as under :- In the case before us the coparcenary consists of only the two minor sons and there is therefore no one who could be in juridical possession of the property as karta. The two widows are not members of the coparcenary. They may be members of the family. Under the Act the nature of their right is a widows estat ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... athedra pronouncement and we respectfully differ from it. It is true that according to the old archaic views a woman was supposed to remain under the perpetual tutelage of some male member of the family throughout her life and that she did not deserve freedom. There are some Sanskrit texts which undoubtedly lay down this position whereas there are other texts which glorify the status of a woman and state that a widow is the surviving half of the husband. It cannot, however, be denied that the authority of the old Smritis and their commentaries has been rudely shaken by the requirements of the modern age and that the old principles of textual Hindu law have been fundamentally modified or altered in many respects by judicial decisions and ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... management of that estate she has the same rights and is subject to the same disabilities as the managing coparceners of a joint Hindu family. In this respect their position are in pari materia, according to the principles laid down by the Judicial Committee in the well-known case of Hunooman Persaud Panday v. Mussumat Babooee Munraj. According to the Dayabhaga law, the foundation of a coparcenary is first laid on the death of the father. The property of the deceased, separate as well as ancestral, is inherited by his male heirs as coparcenary property and is held by them as coparceners. On the death of any one of the coparceners, his heirs succeed to his share in the coparcenary property and they become members of the coparcenary. Such ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ed Judge that mother can be the manager of a Hindu family. This view has also been laid down by a Division Bench of this Court in Sadasheo v. Thakur Halaksingh. In para. 8 of the judgment the learned Judges have observed as under :- He left a widow and three minor sons. In the absence of any adult male member in the family the mother was the manager of the family and acted as such. It is in that capacity that she incurred debts for the benefit of the family..... Inasmuch as the mother Sukhrani was the manager of the family consisting of herself and her minor sons she was entitled to raise money for family purposes and for the benefit of the estate whenever required. We feel, therefore, no hesitation in stating that Mst. Kesar Bai is ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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