karta

The karta manages the property and affairs of a Hindu undivided family. Traditionally the senior-most male member is karta by birth, and others may be karta by consent. His position is sui generis: he is not a trustee or an agent, and he is not bound to account for past dealings unless there is fraud or misappropriation, though a coparcener can demand an account on partition.

The karta may alienate joint family property only for legal necessity, benefit of the estate or discharge of indispensable duties. Since the 2005 amendment to Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act made daughters coparceners by birth, the Delhi High Court has held that the eldest coparcener, even if a daughter, can be karta.

Example

The karta mortgaged joint family land to pay for his sister’s marriage, an alienation for legal necessity that bound the other coparceners.

In Indian law

• Section 6, Hindu Succession Act, 1956, as amended in 2005
• Hunooman Persaud Panday v. Mussumat Babooee Munraj Koonweree (Privy Council, 1856): karta’s power to alienate for necessity

See also

Hindu undivided family · coparcenary · legal necessity · mitakshara

Read more in the study notes

• Kinds of accounts, opening an account, and special classes of customers (Banking Law)
• Abetment of suicide, organised crime and terrorist act (Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita)
• Limitation Act, 1963: salient features, bar of limitation, condonation of delay and legal disability (Civil Procedure Code and Limitation Act)
• Computation of limitation: exclusion of time, fraud, acknowledgment, part-payment and continuing wrongs (Civil Procedure Code and Limitation Act)
• Allotment of shares, private placement and membership (Company Law)
• Partnership: meaning, nature and existence (Contract II)