Transfer of Property Act
3 articles
A Sale Needs a Sale Deed: Suraj Lamp & Industries v. State of Haryana on GPA Sales and SA/GPA/Will Transfers
An agreement to sell, an irrevocable power of attorney and a will, however carefully assembled, do not add up to a sale. The Supreme Court's 2011 reference judgment remains the starting point for any due-diligence review of a property held on such papers.
7 min readMadhya Pradesh High Court: Once a Specific Performance Suit Is Filed, a Buyer's Good Faith No Longer Matters
Deciding two connected first appeals from a decree for specific performance of an agreement to sell agricultural land near Indore, the Madhya Pradesh High Court applied the Supreme Court's recent reconciliation of Section 19(b) of the Specific Relief Act, 1963 with Section 52 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882, holding that a sale executed after suit is filed is bound by the doctrine of lis pendens regardless of the buyer's good faith. The Court went on to correct a structural defect in the trial court's decree: a pendente lite transferee is not simply written out of the title by declaring the sale deed void, but must be directed to join the original vendor in executing the conveyance to the decree-holder.
14 min readDelhi High Court: A Partition Suit Cannot Outrun a Registered Sale to a Bona Fide Purchaser
Deciding a first appeal under Section 96 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, the Delhi High Court upheld the dismissal of a partition suit filed by two sons against their stepmother, half-brother and a third-party purchaser over a Delhi plot. The sons could not rebut the presumption of validity attaching to a registered power of attorney and a registered agreement to sell, and having admittedly parted with possession, could not maintain a suit for partition without also seeking possession — a procedural threshold the case treats as inseparable from any substantive claim to family property.
13 min read