Movable and Immovable Property: Transfer of Property Act 1882
Property: Movable and Immovable Property
Property incorporates all rights of a person, except his personal rights, which constitute his status in society. Property can be classified into movable and immovable properties. The Transfer of Property Act deals with it.
Property has a wide degree and, along these lines, no thorough definition. The court completely expressed in Raichand v. Dattarya [1] that property incorporates all rights of a person except his personal rights, which determine his status in society.
Property’s significance is not static; it changes with the reason, idea of an act, and new laws. Along these lines, to ensure that different choices, proposals, and any suggestions related to property are properly made, first the property is classified into movable and immovable properties, and then, according to their respective laws, the related action is undertaken.
The question now is, “What is the difference between movable and immovable property?”
Definition of Movable Property
Section 3 (36) of the General Clauses Act defines movable property as:
‘Movable property shall mean property of every description, except immovable property.” [2]
Section 2 (9) of the Registration Act, 1908 defines property as:
‘Moveable property’ includes standing timber, growing crops and grass, fruit upon and juice in trees, and property of every other description, except immovable property.” [3]
In this manner, crops remain in the field and incorporate all the vegetables and natural products. They are considered as movable property since they must be utilized once they are served from the land. Additionally, the grass is by and large nourishment for dairy cattle, and consequently it is likewise considered as movable property.
Also, Timber is helpful for development of houses, yet for that, it must be cut and served from the land and afterward no one but it very well may be utilized, that is the reason it is considered as movable property. Then again, trees bearing natural products are helpful when they are established in the earth, and that is the reason they are viewed as immovable property.
Section 22 of IPC defines property as:
The words “moveable property” is intended to include corporeal property of every description, except land and things attached to the earth or permanently fastened to anything, which is attached to the earth. But things attached to the land may become moveable property by severance from the earth. [4]
Transfer of Property Act does not define movable property, since it regulates transfer of immovable property by sale, mortgage, lease, gifts or through actionable claims.
Definition of Immovable Property
Section 3 of Transfer of Property Act defines “Immovable Property” does not include standing timber, growing crops or grass.[5]Moving property includes standing timber, growing crops, and grass, according to this definition.
Section 3(26) of the General Clauses Act 1897, “immovable property” “shall include land, benefits to arise out of land and things attached to the earth, or permanently fastened to anything attached to the earth”. [6]
Section 2(6) of The Registration Act,1908 defines “Immovable Property” as under: “Immovable Property includes land, building, hereditary allowances, rights to ways, lights, ferries, fisheries or any other benefit to arise out of land, and things attached to the earth or permanently fastened to anything which is attached to the earth but not standing timber, growing crops nor grass”. [7]
Joining all the 3 definitions, immovable property can be summed as :-
i. Land
ii. Advantages emerging out of the land
iii. Things connected to the earth
iv. Things Embedded in earth
v. Things attached to what is embedded in the earth
vi. Things established in the earth, with the exception of:-
a. Standing timber,
b. Developing harvest
c. Grass.
Following on from the preceding points, it is commonly assumed that things found on the earth, as well as deep within the earth, such as minerals, are also immovable in nature.
Important Case Laws dealing with Movable and Immovable Property
Since, the definitions of with movable and immovable property are not exact and have room for interpretation, thus various issues have arisen in past years regarding the kind of property. Profit prying is the right to take something from someone else’s territory.
It is right to enter another person’s property and to make some benefit from the soil. There are different points of reference that have been set by the court in acknowledging this concept. Some landmark cases that have been decided are :-
The court held in Smt. Shantabai v. State of Bombay [8] that the right to enter the land, cut and carry away wood for a period of 12 years is a benefit arising from land and thus immovable property.
For the situation in Anand Bahera v. Province of Orissa [9], it was held that profit arising from land is movable property. The option to stroll on the land and to draw fish from the lake and remove them is immovable property, as it is the benefit emerging from the land. Grazing of cattle on the land is additionally immovable property as it is profit emerging from the land.
Idea of Annexation turns into an establishment for choosing an issue in cases including question of characterizing the property, If property lies on the land on its own weight, it is movable; however, if a thing cannot be expelled without causing significant harm to the land, it is viewed as having been implanted in interminability and must be treated as immovable property. The level of annexation is known by the intention and the timeframe for its use.
As an example, while staying on a boat is movable property, the use of any nails and jolts is immovable property because they will most likely be used for a long time and will cause damage if severed.
The above-mentioned concept is further elaborated in the case of Bamdev v. Manorma [10] where it was held that the pieces of equipment are movable property and they simply don’t become immovable just because they are embedded in the earth. They are embedded in the gear for their enjoyment rather than the land. The cinema built is a temporary cinema, and the supplies and other supporting equipment will be fixed only until the mortgage exists.
In Duncans Industries Ltd. v. State of UP [11] , light was thrown on the intention of fixing equipment. It stated that a property is movable, or immovable based on the intention of the owner, whether they wanted to have the equipment permanently or temporarily. In this case, Company A decided to sell its fertilizers business to Company B. It included land and apparatus. The hardware that is installed in the earth is implanted there for long-term use. It is beyond the realm of imagination to expect to expel them without causing extreme harm to the land. Subsequently, it ought to be considered as unflinching property.
Following various judicial pronouncements, some of the judicially recognized immovable properties include :- Right to collect rent for immovable property, hereditary office, right to ferry, right of fishery, equity of redemption, factory, building, walls, interest of mortgage in immovable property etc.
Judicially recognized movable properties include :- Government promissory notes, royalty, right of warship, decree of sale of a mortgaged property, standing timber, grass, growing crops etc.
Apart from the above-mentioned items, with time and development and changing perspectives on the bar and the bench, various items are included and excluded as needs be from the rundown of versatile and steadfast things.
In the end, according to the need, circumstances, and purpose of the item, it is classified, and using the statute, an action is taken. However, to venture out characterization of movable and immovable property, the idea becomes one of extreme importance because, in the current times, it is only property, whether personal or proprietary, tangible or intangible, movable or immovable, that defines a person and his status.
End notes
[1] AIR 1964 Bom 344.
[2] Section 3 (36) , General Clauses Act, 1897.
[3] Section 2 (9) , Registration Act, 1908.
[4] Section 22 , Indian Penal Code, 1860.
[5] Section 3 , Transfer of Property Act, 1882.
[6] Section 3(26) , General Clauses Act,1897.
[7] Section 2(6) , Registration Act,1908.
[8] AIR 1958 SC 532.
[9] 1955 SCR (2) 919.
[10] AIR 1974 AP 226.
[11] (2000) 1 SCC 633.
