hindu joint family – Reunion – To constitute a reunion there must be an intention of the parties to reunite in estate and interest – It is implicit in the concept of a reunion that there shall be an agreement between the parties to reunite in estate with an intention to revert to their former status of members of a joint Hindu family – Such an agreement need not be express, but may be implied from the conduct of the parties alleged to have reunited – But the conduct must be of such an incontrovertible character that an agreement of reunion must be necessarily implied therefrom – As the burden is heavy on a party asserting reunion, ambiguous pieces of conduct equally consistent with a reunion or ordinary joint enjoyment cannot sustain a plea of reunion.
Mayne’s Hindu law, 11th Edn., thus at p. 569:
“As the presumption is in favour of union until a partition is made out, so after a partition the presumption would be against a reunion. To establish it, it is necessary to show, not only that the parties already divided, lived or traded together, but that they did so with the intention of thereby altering their status and of forming a joint estate with all its usual incidents. It requires very cogent evidence to satisfy the burden of establishing that by agreement between them, the divided members of a joint Hindu family have succeeded in so altering their status as to bring themselves within all the rights and obligations that follow from the fresh formation of a joint undivided Hindu family.”
