Property & Succession

The Supreme Court (SC), in Estate Officer, Haryana Urban Development Authority and Ors. v. Nirmala Devi [2025 INSC 843] states that a grant of mandatory injunction under Section 39 of the Specific Relief Act, 1963 (SRA) is discretionary, and can be granted only upon the breach of an enforceable legal obligation.

In N P Rajani v Radha Nambidi Parambath [2025:KER:49346], the High Court of Kerala declared that the daughter of a Hindu, who dies after 20.12.2004, in the State of Kerala is entitled to equal share in the ancestral property (but not in the individual property) if no partition has taken place prior to the date, in spite of the enactment of the JFSAA in 1975.

Any property or a share in any joint property owned by a minor, cannot be sold or disposed of by other means, by the natural guardian of the minor, without taking permission from the court. The disposal of property of a minor or creating a charge on it, by the natural guardian under Hindu law is governed by Section 8 of HMGA and Section 29 of the HMGA.

Unregistered sale agreements, while not transferring ownership, are admissible as evidence in a suit for specific performance to establish the existence of a contract. This admissibility is governed by the interplay between Section 17 and Section 49 of the Registration Act. However, such agreements cannot be used to claim ownership or title to the property without a decree for specific performance, as held by the High Court of Kerala in Shaju v. Victory Granite Bricks Pvt. Ltd. & Another [2025:KER:45599].

The mutation of the property and acceptance of land tax done under the Transfer of Registry Rules, 1966 (in Kerala) will, by itself, neither create or extinguish the title, nor has it any presumptive value on the title. The mutation or paying land tax only enables the person in whose favour mutation has been effected to pay the land tax in question.

A legal heir, such as the wife, son daughter etc, has no right in the self-acquired property of any of his/her parents so long as they are alive. The owner of the self-acquired property can dispose of the self-acquired property in any manner he wishes to do.

The period of limitation for trying to regain title and recover the possession of the suit property by seeking to get the sale deed set aside would be three years, but not twelve years, says the Supreme Court (SC) in its judgement in Mallavva & Anr. v Kalsammanavara Kalamma (Since Dead) By Legal Heirs & Ors. [ 2024 INSC 1021.

Who is the legitimate claimant when the bank deposit/insurance amount of a deceased person is claimed simultaneously by both the nominee on the one hand and the legal heir on the other? The laws have no specific provision to differentiate between legitimacy of a nominee and a legal heir in receiving the deposit/insurance amount of the deceased person. But a few case laws shed light on the issue.