Supreme Court’s big decision regarding property, Now son cannot stop father from selling such property

Dismissing a petition filed 54 years ago, the Supreme Court said that if the head of the family sells ancestral property to pay family debts or for legal needs, the son or other co-partner cannot challenge it in court.

The court said that once it is proved that the father has sold the property for legal needs, the co-parceners cannot challenge it in the court. In this matter, the son had filed a petition against his father in 1964. Both father and son were no more in this world till the matter reached the Supreme Court. The successors of both continued the matter.

There is a provision in the law

• A bench of Justices AM Sapre and SK Kaul said that Article 254 of the Hindu Law has a provision regarding sale of property by the father.
• Article 254(2) provides that the Karta can sell movable/immovable ancestral property.
• He can sell the share of son and grandson to pay the debt but this debt should also be ancestral.
• The debt should not have arisen through any unethical and illegal act.

Ancestral property can be sold

• Can be sold to repay ancestral debt.
• The property can be sold if there is a government liability on it.
• Can be sold for maintenance of family members.
• Can be sold for marriage of sons, daughters, family functions or funerals.
• The property can be sold to meet the costs of ongoing litigation.
• Can be sold for his defense in serious criminal cases against the head of the joint family.