In the light of judicial pronouncements, discuss the following: The family settlement must be a bona fide one.

Family arrangements are governed by a special equity peculiar to themselves. In Kale v. Dy. Director of Consolidation, AIR 1976 SC 807 the Supreme Court has laid down the following essentials of a family settlement in a concretised form: The family settlement must be a bona fide one so as to resolve family disputes and rival claims by a fair and equitable division or allotment of properties between the various members of the family. The said settlement must be voluntary and should not be induced by fraud, coercion or undue influence. The family arrangement may be even oral in which case no registration is necessary. The members who may be parties to the family arrangement must have some antecedent title, claim or interest or even a possible claim in the property which is acknowledged by the parties to the settlement. Even in bona fide disputes, present or possible, which may not involve legal claims are settled by a bona fide family arrangement which is fair and equitable, the family arrangement is final and binding on the parties to the settlement.