Blending of self-acquired property by a female HUF member fails; declaration cannot substitute for a registered gift.

A female member of a Hindu undivided family cannot impress her self-acquired immovable property with the character of joint family property by blending, because blending under Hindu law depends on coparcenary capacity and the attendant rights of joint ownership, which she does not possess. A declaration seeking to transfer a half-share also could not operate as a valid gift, since a gift of immovable property requires a registered instrument and no statutory exception was shown. On that reasoning, the income from the property remained assessable in her hands rather than in the hands of the Hindu undivided family.

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Issues: Whether a female member of a Hindu undivided family can blend her self-acquired immovable property with the joint family property, and if not, whether the declaration can nevertheless operate as a gift so that the income from the transferred half-share is assessable in the hands of the Hindu undivided family.

Analysis: Blending under Hindu law requires a coparcener's capacity to share property into the joint family stock in a manner that does not exclude the transferor from joint ownership. A female member of a Hindu undivided family is not a coparcener and does not possess the right to demand partition or to claim survivorship in the same manner as a male coparcener. On that footing, she cannot impress her separate immovable property with the character of joint family property by blending. The attempt to treat the transaction as a gift also failed, because a gift of immovable property requires a registered instrument, and no statutory fiction was shown that would dispense with that requirement. The earlier authorities relied upon did not support a contrary position on these facts.

Conclusion: The female assessee had no right to blend the immovable property into the Hindu undivided family stock, and the declaration could not operate as a valid gift. The entire income from the property was rightly assessed in her hands.

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