Property belonging to a joint family is ordinarily managed by the father or another senior male member of the family. Under Hindu Law, the manager of a joint family is called the Karta.
The father or other senior male member of the joint family is presumed to be its karta or manager, until the contrary is proved. But such a member may give up his right of management, and a junior male member of the family may be appointed as the Karta with the consent of the other members. But a minor member of the family cannot act as the karta of the family. If all the members of a family are minors, the Court may appoint a guardian for the whole of the joint family property.
The Nagpur High Court had held that, in the absence of an adult male member, even the mother can act as the manager of a joint Hindu family. The ruling of the Supreme Court that only a coparcener can be a Karta or manager, and since a widow or a mother is not a coparcener, she cannot be the manager of a joint Hindu family (Commissioner of Income-Tax v. Govindram Sugar Mills, A.I.R. 1966 S.C. 24) is no longer good law in view of the 2005 Amendment of the Hindu Succession Act (referred to above).
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ADVERTISEMENTS:
An interesting question arose in one case, namely, whether there can be two Kartas of one joint family. Although the Supreme Court, in that case, declined to pass any definite opinion on this point, it indicated that the very idea of there being two Kartas of the same family did not appear prima facie consistent with the concept of a Karta. (Union of India v. Shree Ram, A.I.R. 1965 S.C. 1531)
Position of the Manager:
The manager or karta of a joint family property is not the agent of the other members of the family, so as to make them liable as principals. It has been held that the true relationship between the parties is neither that of a principal and agent, nor that subsisting between partners; rather, it is analogous to that existing between a trustee and a beneficiary. (Annamalai Chetty v. Murugesa Chetty, 30 I.A. 220)
Strictly speaking, however, there is no trust relationship between such parties, and expressions such as trustee and breach of trust are best avoided when speaking of the legal position of the father or other manager of a joint family. Although some of the duties of a manager are similar to those of a trustee, it would be a fallacy to apply the law applicable to trustees to such a person without any qualification. Thus, a manager cannot be called upon to account for acts of alleged negligence.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Then again, in the distribution of the family income among the family members, a Karta is not to be guided by the quantum of the shares of the individual members, but by their actual needs, as conceived by him. Such being his position, he is far from being a trustee in the strict sense of the term.