Gujarat High Court
5 articles
Gujarat High Court: A Tribal Widow's Inherited Land Is Hers to Will Away, Absent a Proven Custom Barring Her
Deciding a second appeal over agricultural land in Surat district contested since 2002, the Gujarat High Court has held that a Scheduled Tribe widow who inherits property from her husband takes it as her own absolute, self-acquired property — free to bequeath it by will — unless a custom restricting female inheritance is actually pleaded and proved, not merely assumed.
13 min readGujarat High Court: Calling a Power of Attorney 'Irrevocable' Does Not Make It So
Deciding two second appeals arising from a thirty-year dispute over agricultural land near Gandhinagar, the Gujarat High Court has reaffirmed that an 'irrevocable' power of attorney is irrevocable only if it is coupled with an interest in the property under Section 202 of the Indian Contract Act — and that a sale deed executed by an agent after valid cancellation conveys no title at all, however registered it later becomes.
14 min readDetention Is Not Seizure: Gujarat High Court Says Customs Cannot Sidestep the Section 110(2) Limitation Clock by Simply Not Passing an Order
A Toyota Land Cruiser sat in DRI custody for over a year on the strength of nothing more than a panchnama, while the department waited out the writ petition before finally issuing a seizure order — and then a show-cause notice timed to fall just inside the limitation period it measured from that late order. The Gujarat High Court was not persuaded: detention without a recorded order under Section 110 is not seizure, the limitation clock does not wait on the department's convenience, and the DRI's account of why it had not acted sooner did not survive the Court's own record.
13 min readNo GST on Assignment of Leasehold Rights: Gujarat High Court Extends a Settled Ratio After the Supreme Court Declines to Interfere
A show-cause notice against Hercules Pigments Pvt. Ltd. was quashed in three paragraphs — the Gujarat High Court simply noted that the Supreme Court had, weeks earlier, declined to interfere with its own ruling that assigning a long-term industrial lease is a transfer of immovable property, not a taxable supply of service. The order is thin, but the line of authority behind it is not: this article traces the reasoning back through Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry v. Union of India and KP Green Engineering Ltd. v. Union of India to work out exactly how far the ratio extends, and where it stops.
14 min readRegistered Deeds Are Not Unwound by Afterthought: Gujarat High Court on Part-Payment, Fraud Pleadings and the Fragmentation Act
A seller who takes the cheques, signs the register, and only later complains that the office computer was slow has an uphill pleading burden. This case note works through the Gujarat High Court's reasoning on registered sale deeds, consideration, non est factum and the Fragmentation Act.
13 min read