Property Law and Family Law
Property and Family questions reward exact statutory conditions: whether a transfer is valid, which personal law applies, and what remedy follows.
Property
- Transfer of Property Act, 1882: s.5 requires a living person, competence and transfer by act of parties; s.54 governs sale of tangible immovable property (registration if value is Rs.100 or more); s.58 classifies mortgages, with s.60 redemption and s.63 against clogs; s.105 lease, s.108 rights and liabilities, s.111 determination.
- Section 53A protects a buyer in part performance who has taken possession and performed the essential terms; s.41 protects a transferee from an ostensible owner acting in good faith; s.43 operates by estoppel.
- The Registration Act, 1908 and the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988 (amended 2016) affect enforceability and title.
Family
- Hindu Marriage Act, 1955: s.5 conditions; s.13 grounds (adultery, cruelty, desertion, conversion, mental disorder, renunciation, presumption of death); s.13B mutual consent; s.24 interim and s.25 permanent maintenance. The Special Marriage Act, 1954 governs civil marriage.
- Succession: the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 made daughters coparceners by birth; Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma (2020) held the right applies whether or not the father was alive on 9 September 2005.
- Maintenance also lies under BNSS s.144 (formerly CrPC s.125) and the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005.
- Muslim law: essentials of nikah; talaq-ul-biddat is void under the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019.
Worked example
A Hindu father dies in 2000, leaving a daughter and son. The daughter claims a coparcenary share. Under s.6 as amended, she is a coparcener in her own right; Vineeta Sharma settles that the father need not be alive on the commencement date. She takes the same share as the son in the coparcenary property, while the father's separate property devolves under s.8 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956.
Traps
- Confusing s.53A (equitable defence) with s.54 (sale).
- Applying the 2005 amendment only prospectively.