Your Q His A

V.D. Goley

Immovable property can be held by a Hindu male either as self-acquired property or as ancestral property. Ancestral property is generally held in the form of coparcenary property, which means that every member of the family would have an equal undivided right in the property, and upon partition of the property, every member is entitled to an equal share.

In the case of self-acquired property, however, the acquirer of the property has the right to dispose of the property as he pleases, and this includes making a gift or bequest of the property. Such gifts or bequests need not be equally made to all members of his family.

From your query, it is not clear whether the property in question is self-acquired property of your father or ancestral property. If the property in question is ancestral property, all members of the family would be entitled to equal shares upon partition. However, if it is self-acquired property, your father is entitled to distribute it among you and your brothers in any manner that he thinks fit.

• I am a widower with two school-going kids. After my wife’s death, all official documents such as school records contain details referring to the children’s mother as the Late so-and-so. Also, the birth certificates show the name of their biological mother. I plan to marry in the near future. What would my children write in the column for their mother’s name in school and other records?

Anonymous

Official records generally use parentage as a means of identification. Therefore, the requirement in most official records (including school records), of specifying the names of parents, is to specify the name of the natural (or biological) parents of the child. The exception is in the case of adopted children, where the name of the adoptive parent is used. Therefore, your deceased wife’s name would continue to be used in the official records of your children, even if you remarry.

• I am a divorced man and wish to adopt a girl child. Can a man adopt a girl child under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act and Guardians and Wards Act, and if so, what are the provisions?

Samir Mehta

The Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act is the legislation that governs the adoption of children by Hindus. Section 11(iii) provides specifically that when a Hindu wishes to adopt a child of the opposite sex, he or she will have to be at least twenty-one years senior to the child. A married Hindu male cannot adopt without the consent of his wife, but this requirement does not apply to widowers and divorcees. The provisions of the Guardians and Wards Act 1890, apply to communities other than Hindus, such as Christians, Parsis, Muslims and Jews, who can become guardians of the child during minority. The statute does not deal with adoption as such but mainly with guardianship. The process makes the child a ward, not an adopted child. Under this law, when children attain twenty-one years of age, they no longer remain wards and assume individual identities. They also do not have an automatic right of inheritance.

As the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act would apply to you, you would be able to adopt a girl child as long as she is at least twenty-one years your junior.