KSLU Solved Question Papers
Property Law
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 6
2019 Dec Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 6 Property Law 2019 Dec Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by Karnataka State Law University at the 2019 Dec examination.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2019 Dec examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2019 Dec examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 80 · 20 questions answered
Instructions printed on the paper
- N.B. (1) Answer all the five Units. (2) One essay type question and short note/problem is compulsory from each Unit. (3) Answers should be written either in English or Kannada completely. (4) Figures to the rightside indicate the marks.
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
Q1
Unit I
(a)Define 'transfer of property'. State whether partition, surrender, compromise and gift amounts to transfer under the Act.[10]
Answer
For full marks, cover: the definition in section 5 and its elements; the test it gives (does a living person convey property to another?); partition (not a transfer, V.N. Sarin v. Major Ajit Kumar Poplai); surrender (not a transfer: a lease merges in the reversion under section 111(e), and a surrender conveys nothing, Natvarlal Punjabhai v. Dadubhai Manubhai); compromise or family settlement (not a transfer: it recognises antecedent titles, Kale v. Deputy Director of Consolidation); gift (a transfer under section 122, with its formalities); registration where a document is used; a table.
The definition
Section 5 of the Transfer of Property Act 1882 defines "transfer of property" as "an act by which a living person conveys property, in present or in future, to one or more other living persons, or to himself, or to himself and one or more other living persons". A "living person" includes a company or association, whether incorporated or not.
The definition has these elements.
- An act of the parties. A transfer is a voluntary act. Inheritance, a sale by the court and other transfers by operation of law are outside the Act, except where it says otherwise.
- A living person as transferor. A will, which takes effect only on death, is not a transfer.
- Conveyance of property. Some interest in property must pass from the transferor to the transferee.
- To living persons. The transferee must be alive, or a company or other body, at the date of transfer.
- In present or in future. The interest may pass at once or at a later date.
So the test for each transaction in the question is simple. Does one person, by his own act, convey to another an interest that the other did not already have?
Partition: not a transfer
When co-owners partition property, no one receives what he did not already own. Each co-owner had an interest in the whole property, and partition only marks out which part each will hold alone. V.N. Sarin v. Major Ajit Kumar Poplai, AIR 1966 SC 432, decided on 9 August 1965, held that a member who got a let bungalow on a family partition had not acquired it "by transfer". By partition, the "joint title is by partition transformed into separate titles of the individual co-parceners". Partition is therefore not a transfer.
Surrender: not a transfer
A surrender is the giving up of a limited interest to the person who holds the larger interest behind it. The common example is the surrender of a lease. Under section 111(e), a lease ends by express surrender, "in case the lessee yields up his interest under the lease to the lessor, by mutual agreement between them". Section 111(f) recognises implied surrender too, as where the lessee accepts a new lease from the same lessor.
On a surrender, the lessee's interest does not pass to the lessor as a new interest. It merges in the lessor's ownership and comes to an end. The lessor already owned the reversion, and the surrender only frees it of the lease. For this reason Indian courts have generally treated the surrender of a lease as not a transfer.
The Supreme Court explained the nature of a surrender in Natvarlal Punjabhai v. Dadubhai Manubhai, AIR 1954 SC 61, decided on 18 November 1953. It concerned the old Hindu law, under which a widow held her husband's estate only for life. A widow surrendered that estate to the reversioners, the next heirs. Some land had already been taken from her by others through adverse possession, and the question was whether the reversioners could recover it at once.
The Court held that a surrender "is not really an act of alienation". The reversioner "does not occupy the position of a grantee or transferee, and does not derive his title from her". "The surrender conveys nothing in law; it is purely a self-effacement." The reversioners took as heirs of the last male owner, so they could recover the land at once. The Hindu Succession Act 1956 later made a Hindu woman's estate absolute, so this kind of surrender belongs to the old law. But the reasoning holds for every surrender: it ends an interest, and conveys none.
Compromise and family settlement: not a transfer
A compromise between members of a family, settling their claims to property, is called a family settlement or family arrangement. Each party gives up his claim to the shares falling to the others and takes his own.
Kale v. Deputy Director of Consolidation, AIR 1976 SC 807, decided on 21 January 1976, set out the law. In Uttar Pradesh, the members of a family settled their claims to a deceased owner's land by an arrangement. A memorandum of it was filed before the revenue authority to have the names changed in the records. The authorities refused to act on it because it was not registered.
The Supreme Court reversed them. It held that a family arrangement rests on an "antecedent title", claim or interest of the parties, which the arrangement acknowledges and defines. Quoting an earlier decision, it said: "That explains why no conveyance is required in these cases to pass the title." A memorandum of an arrangement already made did not "create or extinguish any rights in immovable property", so it needed no registration. So a genuine compromise or family settlement is not a transfer.
Gift: a transfer
A gift is a transfer in the full sense. Section 122 defines it as "the transfer of certain existing moveable or immoveable property made voluntarily and without consideration, by one person, called the donor, to another, called the donee". It must be accepted in the donor's lifetime. The donor parts with ownership, and the donee receives what he did not have before. So it fits every element of section 5.
Because it is a transfer, a gift must follow the Act's form. Under section 123, a gift of immovable property must be made "by a registered instrument signed by or on behalf of the donor, and attested by at least two witnesses". A gift of movables may be made by such an instrument or by delivery. Two kinds of gift stand apart. A gift by will is not a transfer, since it takes effect on death. And under section 129, the chapter on gifts does not affect the rules of Muslim law on hiba.
Registration is a separate question
That a transaction is not a transfer does not always free it from registration. Section 17(1)(b) of the Registration Act 1908 covers a document that itself creates, declares or extinguishes a right in immovable property. If the right is worth Rs 100 or more, the document must be registered. A deed of partition that divides the property, or a deed of surrender of a long lease, falls within it. But a memorandum recording a partition or family settlement already made does not, as Kale holds.
| Transaction | A transfer? | Reason | Authority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Partition | No | Joint title becomes separate title; nothing new passes | V.N. Sarin |
| Surrender | No | The lesser interest merges in the larger one and ends | Section 111(e), Natvarlal Punjabhai |
| Transaction | A transfer? | Reason | Authority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compromise or family settlement | No | It acknowledges antecedent titles; no conveyance is needed | Kale |
| Gift | Yes | Ownership passes voluntarily, without consideration, between living persons | Sections 5, 122, 123 |
Conclusion. A transfer under section 5 is an act by which a living person conveys property to another living person. Partition is not a transfer, because it only turns joint title into separate title, as V.N. Sarin holds. Surrender is not a transfer, because it ends an interest and conveys none, as Natvarlal Punjabhai explains. A family compromise is not a transfer, because it recognises titles the parties already claimed, as Kale holds. A gift is a transfer and must be made in the form section 123 requires.
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