Transferee Cannot Enforce Title If Transferor Did Not Possess Title, SC Holds

The Supreme Court of India recently held that when a person devoid of title transfers an immovable property, the transferee cannot enforce the title.

Bench comprising Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia heard a plea against High Court judgment surrounding the issue of partition.

The instant matter pertained to a partition suit. The main issue before the Court was whether The main issue before the Court was whether one Chiruthey had any title over the subject-property which the plaintiff claimed through the series of transactions.

The Court held that even if subsistence of a deed was proved in evidence, the title of the executing person (in this case Chiruthey) did not automatically stand confirmed.

The Court said that, "If a document seeking to convey immovable property ex-facie reveals that the conveyer does not have the title over the same, specific declaration that the document is invalid."

The Court affirmed that if right, title or interest in certain property is sought conveyed by a person by an instrument who herself does not possess any such form of entitlement on the subject being conveyed, even with a subsisting deed of conveyance on such property, the grantee on her successors-in-interest will not have legal right to enforce the right the latter may have derived from such an instrument.

The appeal came to be allowed.

2024 INSC 28