Impartibly Estate:
Impartibly estate is not subject to partition among the members of the family, but is held by only one of them usually the eldest. Property although partible by nature, May by custom or by terms of grant by the Government, is impartible in the sense that it always devolves on a single member to the exclusion of the other members. The presumption being that all property is impartibly, impartibility must be pleaded and proved by persons who allege it. An impartible estate may be ancestral or may be self-acquired.
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ADVERTISEMENTS:
Their origin is due to the following causes:
(1) Some of them which were formerly independent or semi- independent principalities now become ordinary Zamindaries.
(2) Some private estates were not partitioned for many generations by agreement, and held by one on behalf of all for the sake of convenience.
(3) Most of them are due to the fact that the Moslem rulers entrusted the administration of districts to revenue officials who collected the revenue. Formerly the office was only for life. Afterwards sons were adopted in place of the father to collect the revenue.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Thus the office became hereditary and finally these revenue collectors became proprietors of the districts subject to the payment of the State Revenue. An office being indivisible the estate of the collectors came to be regarded by custom as impartibly.
(4) Some of them have been granted by the Government as impartibly estate descendable by the rule of primogeniture. (See Martand v. Malhar, 1928 PC 10).
The Government has power to make a grant and limit in any way the descent of such property.
Mode of enjoyment:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The holder for the time being is absolute in its management the other members have no right to interfere with the management, they are only entitled to maintenance. He may spend the whole income and he is not bound to save anything. If he saves, the savings became his self-acquired property, and are not subject to primogeniture but to the ordinary rules of descent.
It may be mentioned here that after the coming into force of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 (i.e. after 17th June, 1956) no such estate can exist. Section 5 of the said Act abolishes all such estates subject to provisions of clause (ii) of the said section. Clause (iii) provides that “the Act shall not apply to any estate which descends to a single heir by the term of any covenant or agreement entered into by the Ruler of an Indian State with the Government of India or by the terms of any enactment passed before the commencement of this Act.”