Whether a husband and wife can form an HUF without any issue?
Question:
Whether a husband and wife can form an HUF without any issue?
Opinion:
Let us discuss it in short to know about the solution. This is one of the most common questions. There are a lot many individual taxpayers who want to create a HUF with a spouse by taking the gift from the family members.
- Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) is just a normal prevailing condition in the Hindu Society.
- It must be noted that HUF is a creature of law and cannot be created by act of parties or by executing a contract deed.
- Hindu Undivided Family is different from a Hindu coparcenary.
- Hindu coparcenary is a special feature of the Mitakshara School of Hindu Law. It consists exclusively of male members, much narrower than Hindu Undivided Family. A coparcenary includes only those who acquire by birth an interest in the joint or coparcenary property. No coparcenary can commence without a common male ancestor.
It may be recalled that the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 has been amended w.e.f. 09.09.2005 with a view to give daughters on birth equal rights as a son on his birth. Resultantly, the daughter has the right to be a coparcener and also a right to claim partition or vest her individual property in the HUF. These are important rights hitherto denied to the daughter. - To create HUF, at least two coparceners are required either son or daughter. Therefore only husband and wife cannot create an HUF, unless the property has been received by a coparcener on partition or otherwise. However, there is no impediment to starting a new HUF by gift from family members.
In short, even a husband and wife can create HUF if (a) they have received the property on partition or (b) they have received a gift for HUF
