At the outset, your right to gift your lawful share is recognized under law. Once a person becomes entitled to a defined share in coparcenary or jointly owned property—whether by succession, survivorship, or otherwise—such person has the right to transfer that share, subject to certain limitations. Under Section 14(1) of the Hindu Succession Act, any property possessed by a Hindu female, whether acquired before or after commencement of the Act, becomes her absolute property, and she is full owner thereof. Therefore, your one-third undivided share that devolved upon you on your husband’s death is your separate and absolute property. Section 8 read with Section 14 of the Hindu Succession Act gives you complete ownership over your share, and Section 6 of the Transfer of Property Act permits transfer by gift of such interest. Accordingly, you were legally entitled to execute gift deeds of your undivided one-third share, even during the pendency of the partition suit, provided the transfer did not contravene any court order restraining alienation. Since no stay or injunction exists, the execution and registration of those gift deeds are valid and effective in law.
As to the question of disclosure, you may now place the gift deeds on record by filing an appropriate interlocutory application under Order VIII Rule 9 or Order XIII Rule 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure, praying for leave to produce additional documents. You may explain that the transfers have been lawfully made, that there was no injunction in force, and that the disclosure is being made now to ensure full transparency and to assist the court in correctly determining the respective shares. You may also amend your written statement under Order VI Rule 17 CPC to bring the subsequent events on record if necessary. Courts routinely allow such amendments to reflect subsequent developments occurring during litigation.
Your earlier non-disclosure of the first two gift deeds is not fatal or illegal. There is no statutory obligation to disclose immediately upon execution, particularly when no interim order of restraint exists. However, full disclosure now will avoid later allegations of suppression. Since you acted in good faith and the gifts were duly registered, there should be no adverse consequence or procedural penalty. At most, the plaintiff may attempt to challenge your bona fides or allege that the transfers were made to defeat his rights; these are matters of argument, not invalidity.
If your elder son or any other party wishes to challenge the validity of the gift deeds, they may do so within the same partition proceedings by amending their pleadings to include a prayer for cancellation or declaration of invalidity of the gift deeds. The law does not require a separate independent suit in such circumstances. The trial court in a partition case has full jurisdiction to adjudicate incidental issues relating to alienations, transfers, or gifts made by one co-owner. However, the burden of proof will lie on the challenger to establish that the gift was fraudulent, executed without authority, or hit by any provision of the Transfer of Property Act. In your case, given that you were the absolute owner of your one-third share, and the transfers were made voluntarily by registered deeds, such a challenge would likely fail.
Regarding the validity of the gift of an undivided share, the legal position is settled that a co-owner or co-sharer in joint property may transfer his or her undivided interest without prior partition. Section 44 of the Transfer of Property Act expressly provides that a co-owner can transfer his share in joint property, and the transferee steps into the shoes of the transferor as co-owner with the remaining sharers. The gift of an undivided share is therefore valid even if the property has not been physically partitioned. The pendency of a partition suit does not extinguish or suspend this right, unless a specific injunction is in force. The statement that a gift deed for an undivided share becomes valid “as soon as a partition suit is filed” is not correct; such gift is valid irrespective of the pendency of proceedings, because the right arises from ownership, not from the filing of the suit. Filing of the suit merely crystallizes the shares but does not create ownership for the first time.
Accordingly, in your circumstances, each of the three gift deeds executed by you is valid and effective under law. They do not prejudice the plaintiff’s one-third share, since your transfer pertains only to your lawful share. The appropriate course now is to file an application to bring these documents on record, supported by an affidavit explaining the absence of any stay order and your intention to ensure complete and transparent adjudication of rights. The court will take note of the gifts as subsequent events and reflect them in the final decree of partition, recording that your transferee (your younger son) now represents your interest in those properties.
In conclusion, (a) you had full legal authority to gift your one-third share in each of the three properties, (b) you should disclose the gift deeds by filing an application to produce additional documents or by amending your written statement, (c) any challenge by the plaintiff can be raised and decided in the same proceedings, and (d) the gift of an undivided share is valid irrespective of whether a partition suit is pending.