Property, Succession and Family/Personal Law
What the exam tests
Property questions test transfer, registration and priorities; succession tests intestate and testamentary devolution; family law tests marriage, divorce, maintenance, adoption and guardianship.
Core rules
- Sale under s.54 TPA requires a registered instrument for immovable property above ₹100; an agreement to sell does not transfer title.
- Section 52 lis pendens protects a pending suit; s.53A protects a transferee who has performed part of the contract.
- Section 41 protects a transferee from an ostensible owner who had no notice of the true owner's title.
- Under Hindu succession, a daughter is a coparcener by birth; the 2005 amendment applies to partitions after 9 September 2005 (Vineeta Sharma v Rakesh Sharma).
- A will must be attested by two witnesses; probate is generally required for a will concerning immovable property in presidency towns.
- Muslim personal law is largely uncodified; the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939 gives a wife specific divorce grounds.
Worked example
A Hindu father dies intestate in 2000, leaving a son and a daughter. A partition of the ancestral property takes place in 2010. The daughter claims a coparcenary share. Under Vineeta Sharma, the daughter is a coparcener by birth, and the father need not have been alive on 9 September 2005. However, a partition effected before 20 December 2004 is protected. Since the partition here is in 2010, the daughter gets her share.
Traps
An agreement to sell is not a sale. Registration is not the same as mutation. Do not confuse testamentary succession with intestate succession. Maintenance rights are independent of divorce. A Muslim wife's right to maintenance under s.125 CrPC/BNSS is not barred by personal law.