In Jyoti Sharma v. Vishnu Goyal [2025 INSC 1099], the Supreme Court of India has unequivocally held that a tenant, who enters premises under a rent deed, keeps its possession, and continues to pay rent for decades, cannot subsequently challenge the landlord’s title or claim ownership through adverse possession.
That means, a tenant who takes the property on rent through a rent deed executed by a landlord by recognizing the landlord’s title, cannot later turn around and challenge the landlord’s title on the ground of adverse possession.
In this seven-decade-old landlord-tenant dispute, the Supreme Court observed that the tenants’ predecessors had taken the shop on rent from the original landowner and continued to pay rent to him till his death, and subsequently to his son.
Therefore, the Court ruled, the tenants were estopped (legally prevented) from questioning the title of the original landlord or his legal successor.
