Notional partition under Hindu succession law excludes older coparcenary rules on mother's share and daughters' provision.

For computing the interest of a deceased Mitakshara coparcener under Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, the notional partition is governed by the Act alone. Pre-existing Hindu law rules that would give the mother a share or require provision for daughters' maintenance and marriage expenses do not apply, because Section 4 overrides inconsistent prior law and Section 6 creates only a limited notional partition to ascertain the deceased's share. The coparcenary interest must therefore be calculated without importing the traditional partition mechanism. The appeal was rejected and the respondent's computation of the deceased's share was upheld.

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Issues: Whether, for determining the interest of a deceased Mitakshara coparcener under Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, the notional partition must take place on the basis of the pre-existing Hindu law rule giving a share to the mother and providing for the maintenance and marriage expenses of daughters.

Analysis: Section 6 deems the deceased coparcener's interest to be the share that would have been allotted to him if a partition had occurred immediately before death. The provision, however, contemplates only a notional partition for the limited purpose of ascertaining the deceased's interest. The Act must be read with Section 4, which gives overriding effect to its provisions and displaces inconsistent rules of Hindu law. The traditional rule requiring a mother's share and provision for daughters on partition cannot be treated as surviving for the purpose of computing the deceased's notional share, because that would import an actual partition mechanism not enacted by Section 6 and would produce inequitable results inconsistent with the scheme of the Act.

Conclusion: The deceased coparcener's interest is to be computed on a notional partition without applying the Hindu law rule that would otherwise give the mother a share or require provision for daughters' maintenance and marriage expenses.

Final Conclusion: The appeal was rejected, and the respondent's view on the computation of the coparcenary interest under the Act was upheld.

Ratio Decidendi: For determining a deceased Mitakshara coparcener's interest under Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, the notional partition is governed by the Act alone, and inconsistent pre-existing Hindu law rules are excluded by Section 4.

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