Partition — MCQs

All questions with answers and explanations

Read the full set here, or use the practice card above to test yourself one question at a time.

1. Which of these correctly describes 'severance of status' in Hindu law?

   • The physical division of family property
   • A purely legal change ending a coparcener's joint status (correct answer)
   • A ceremony performed by the Karta
   • A court order allotting specific plots

   Explanation. Severance of status is a change in legal relationship only — it needs no physical division of property at all.

2. In Addagada Raghavamma v. Addagada Chenchamma (1964), the Supreme Court held that severance of status requires:

   • A registered partition deed only
   • An unequivocal declaration of intent, communicated to the other coparceners (correct answer)
   • A court decree only
   • Physical division of all assets first

   Explanation. The Court held severance requires a clear, unequivocal declaration of intent to separate, which must be communicated to the other affected coparceners.

3. 'Division by metes and bounds' refers to:

   • The legal severance of status only
   • The actual, physical division of property into specific shares (correct answer)
   • A father's power over his sons
   • The reopening of a partition

   Explanation. Division by metes and bounds is the actual, physical division of property into specific, individual shares — the second stage of partition.

4. Which of the following can demand partition since the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005?

   • Only sons
   • Only the father
   • Both sons and daughters, on equal footing (correct answer)
   • Only the eldest male coparcener

   Explanation. Since 2005, daughters have exactly the same right as sons to demand partition and receive a share.

5. If a son is in the womb at the time of a partition, the completed partition:

   • Is void
   • Can be reopened for him (correct answer)
   • Cannot be reopened in any case
   • Is valid only after he is born

   Explanation. A completed partition is final, but it can be reopened for fraud, for a minor's unprotected interest or for a son in the womb.

6. Which of these is a recognised ground for reopening a completed partition?

   • A coparcener simply changing their mind later
   • Fraud in the original division (correct answer)
   • General family disagreement afterward
   • One member becoming wealthier than others

   Explanation. Fraud (along with an unprotected minor's interest, a son in the womb, a wrongly excluded disqualified/absent coparcener, or a validly adopted son) is a recognised ground for reopening.

7. How does 'reopening' a partition differ from 'reunion'?

   • They are the same thing
   • Reopening corrects a defect in an existing partition; reunion is a fresh, mutual agreement to rejoin the family (correct answer)
   • Reopening is only for movable property
   • Reunion requires no consent from anyone

   Explanation. Reopening fixes a flawed existing partition, while reunion is an entirely new event requiring the genuine, mutual consent of all parties to rejoin as a joint family.

8. Under section 6(5) of the Hindu Succession Act, section 6 does not apply to a partition effected before:

   • 1 January 1956
   • 20 December 2004 (correct answer)
   • 9 September 2005
   • 1 April 2010

   Explanation. Section 6(5) says section 6 does not apply to a partition effected before 20 December 2004. For section 6, partition means a partition by a registered deed or by a decree of a court.

9. Under the Explanation to Section 6(5) of the Hindu Succession Act, 'partition' means:

   • Any oral family arrangement
   • A partition by a duly registered deed, or by a decree of a court (correct answer)
   • Only a partition by court decree
   • Any informal division of possession

   Explanation. The Explanation limits 'partition' to a registered deed of partition or a decree of a court.

10. Under Section 6(3), when a coparcener dies after the 2005 Act, his interest devolves:

    • By survivorship
    • By testamentary or intestate succession, with the coparcenary property deemed divided by a notional partition (correct answer)
    • To the Karta only
    • To the eldest son only

    Explanation. Section 6(3) replaces survivorship with succession, after a notional partition.