[ Everyday Law ]
A buyer who has paid, taken possession, and acted on the agreement — but never received a registered sale deed — is not without protection. Section 53A of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 imports a modified form of the English equity of part performance: the seller who put the buyer in possession is debarred from using the absence of a completed transfer to evict him. It is a shield, not a sword. It cannot be used to claim ownership or to sue for possession; it can only be raised in defence to protect possession already held. The Supreme Court in Shrimant Shamrao Suryavanshi v Pralhad Bhairoba Suryavanshi , (2002) 3 SCC 676 held that the defence survives even after the limitation period for a suit for specific performance has expired, because limitation bars suits, not defences. This guide sets out the six conditions the buyer must satisfy, the decisive effect of the 2001 registration amendment, the shield-not-sword limit, the limitation point, and how Section 53A interacts with the doctrine of lis pendens.
2026-05-15 · 16 min read
[ Everyday Law ]
A flat purchase in India is governed by three statutes operating in layers — the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 supplies the substantive law of sale (Sections 54 and 55), the Registration Act, 1908 supplies the formalities of conveyance (Sections 17, 18, 23 and 49), and the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 supplies the regulatory overlay for the under-construction segment (Sections 3, 4, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 18). On top of these sit the state stamp acts (calculated under Article 23 of Schedule I of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 or the state equivalent) and the municipal-revenue framework that supplies the mutation records, the Encumbrance Certificate and the local extract — the 7/12 in Maharashtra, the khata in Karnataka, the patta in Tamil Nadu. The Supreme Court in Suraj Lamps and Industries Pvt Ltd v State of Haryana , (2012) 1 SCC 656 settled the bright-line rule that GPA-sales, sale-agreement-cum-power-of-attorney-cum-will transfers and similar workarounds do not transfer title — only a registered sale deed does. This guide sets out the title-verification checklist a buyer must work through before signing the sale deed, and identifies the documents whose absence is dispositive.
2026-05-15 · 22 min read
