partition

Partition ends joint ownership. Co-owners, coparceners or co-heirs may partition by agreement (often recorded in a partition deed), by family arrangement, or through a court suit. In Hindu law, partition of a joint family also means severance of status: a coparcener can separate by an unequivocal declaration of his intention, even before the property is divided by metes and bounds.

In a partition suit the court usually passes a preliminary decree declaring the shares and then a final decree actually dividing the property. Where division is not practicable, the court may order sale under the Partition Act, 1893. Since 2005, daughters are coparceners by birth and can claim partition like sons.

Example

The court passed a preliminary decree for partition declaring the daughter's one-third share and appointed a commissioner to divide the land.

In Indian law

• Order XX Rule 18, Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (decree in a suit for partition)
• Partition Act, 1893
• Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma, 2020 INSC 487: daughters are coparceners by birth under the amended s.6 Hindu Succession Act

See also

coparcenary · Hindu undivided family · preliminary decree · mitakshara

Read more in the study notes

• Need for ADR, international commitments and suitability of disputes (Alternative Dispute Resolution Systems)
• Lending by banks: principles, priority sector, securities, interest and penalty (Banking Law)
• Burden of proof: the general rules (Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam)
• Introduction to the CPC: procedural law, history and key definitions (Civil Procedure Code and Limitation Act)
• Jurisdiction of civil courts and suits of a civil nature (section 9) (Civil Procedure Code and Limitation Act)
• Place of suing (sections 15 to 21A) (Civil Procedure Code and Limitation Act)