Transfer of Property Act, 1882 and Easements Act, 1882
What the exam tests
Property questions test transfer inter vivos, formalities, protection of bona fide transferees and the incidents of easements. Precision on the section that protects a party is what separates a good answer from an average one.
Core rules
- Section 54: sale of tangible immovable property of value Rs 100 and upwards requires a registered instrument; below that value, delivery of possession suffices.
- Section 59: a mortgage of immovable property whose principal exceeds Rs 100 must be by registered instrument.
- Section 53A: a transferee put in possession under a written, signed but unregistered contract, willing to perform, may defend possession against the transferor.
- Section 41: a bona fide transferee from an ostensible owner, who takes reasonable care to ascertain the transferor's title, obtains a good title.
- Section 43: a transfer by an unauthorised person operates as a contract to transfer, and takes effect when the transferor later acquires the interest.
- Section 52: lis pendens voids transfers of the suit property during the pendency of the suit.
- Easements Act Section 4 defines an easement; Section 13 recognises grant, necessity and prescription; Section 15 grants an easement of prescription after twenty years of peaceable, open enjoyment as of right.
Worked example
A sells the rear half of his land to B, leaving A's front plot with no access to the highway except across B's portion. B's transfer severs A's rights, and A acquires an easement of necessity under Section 13(a); when the State later opens a link road giving access, the easement is extinguished because the necessity has ceased.
Traps
Using Section 53A as a sword for possession rather than a shield in defence; ignoring that Section 41 obliges the transferee to make reasonable enquiry; and treating prescriptive easements as available against the State without the longer period.