What Is The Difference Between Dayabhaga Law And Mitakshara Law?

A Dayabhaga joint family differs from a Mitakshara joint family in the follow­ing respect.

(1) Sons do not acquire any right by birth in the ancestral property.

(2) The principle of survivorship is not recognised and the sons take the property as heirs after the father’s death.

(3) Father is absolute owner even of the ancestral property and may sell or mortgage it in any manner he likes.

(4) A female like widow or daughter may be a member of a coparcenary.

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(5) Each coparcener had distinct share in the coparenary prop­erty which can dispose of in any manner he likes.

(6) In Dayabhaga joint family there is unity of possession and not unity of ownership as in Mitakshara Law. The coparcen­ers under Dayabhaga Law are tenant’s in common and not joint tenants as in Mitakshara Law.

(7) Coparcency under the Dayabhaga arises only on the death of the father and no on the birth of a son as in Mitakshara.

Each system has merits and demerits. The Mitakshara system is orthodox whereas the Dayabhaga system is more progressive.

The joint family governed by the Mitakshara law is good security in case of distress. A coparcener even when he is not an earning member gets all help which he needs at the time of illness and distress. But at the same time it has created many parasites on the purse of the family, so the economic growth of the family stopped in the long run.

In their days of plenty the Mitakshara law was certainly good but now-a-days when the economic condi­tion of the country is not sound and secure it is not favourable. With the growth of the spirit of individualism and individual enterprise and the economic pressure in these hard days it may be predicted that the Dayabhage system as a brighter future before it.