Female coparcener's share on joint family extinction depends on the governing personal law and partition rights.

On the extinction of a Hindu undivided family under the Kerala Joint Hindu Family System (Abolition) Act, 1975, coparcenary property is treated as held by members as tenants-in-common only where the personal law or custom governing the family gives the female member a legal right to claim partition or a share on partition. A wife's entitlement to a share is not automatic and depends on the applicable school of Hindu law or custom. The record here lacked findings on that governing law and on the wife's partition right, so the Tribunal proceeded on an incorrect assumption in limiting wealth-tax assessment to the assessee's presumptive share.

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Issues: Whether, on the extinction of a Hindu undivided family under the Kerala Joint Hindu Family System (Abolition) Act, the assessee's wife was entitled to a share in the joint family properties so that only the assessee's presumptive share could be brought to wealth-tax.

Analysis: Section 4 of the Kerala Joint Hindu Family System (Abolition) Act, 1975 treats the members of a Mitakshara joint family as holding coparcenary property as tenants-in-common on the statutory extinction of the family, but that result follows only if the female member had a legal entitlement to claim partition or to a share on partition under the personal law applicable to the family. The entitlement of a wife to such a share is not universal and depends on the specific school of Hindu law or custom governing the assessee. The record did not contain the necessary findings on the applicable school of law or on whether the wife had such a right, and the Tribunal proceeded on an incorrect assumption.

Conclusion: The Tribunal was wrong in holding that the assessee's wife was entitled to a share in the estate and that only the assessee's presumptive share could be assessed in his hands.

Ratio Decidendi: On the statutory extinction of a joint Hindu family, a female member obtains a share in the property only if the personal law or custom governing the family confers a right to partition or to a share on partition; absent such a right, the Tribunal cannot assume that only the assessee's presumptive share is assessable.

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