The Kerala Nambudiri Act, 1958
The Kerala Nambudiri Act, 1958
The Kerala Nambudiri Act, 1958 regulates the governance and division of joint family property among Nambudiri Brahmins and related communities in Kerala. It applies to all members of these communities across the state, defining rights within the traditional undivided family structure known as an illom. The law matters because it modernized traditional family property relations by granting equal ownership rights to both male and female family members. It placed accountability on the family manager, protected female members by securing their maintenance and marriage expenses, and allowed individual members to claim their distinct equal share through per capita partition of family assets.
- 0. Preamble
- 1. Short title, extent and commencement.
- 2. Definitions.
- 3. Proprietary right of members in illom properties.
- 4. Duty of karanavan to keep accounts.
- 5. Sales, mortgages and leases.
- 6. Powers of the Karanavan.
- 7. Debt contracted or transaction entered into by Karanavan when binding on illom.
- 8. Burden of proving illom necessity.
- 9. Maintenance of members of illom.
- 10. Relinquishment of karanavanship.
- 11. Receiver to be appointed when illom consists of minors only.
- 12. Right of Nambudiri female to recover the marriage expenses and dowry.
- 13. Right of member to claim partition.
- 14. Partition on change of religion.
- 15. Character of property taken on partition.
- 16. Repeal.
PDF: pending for this language.