Registration Of Gift Not Required Under Mohammedan Law : Supreme Court

The Supreme Court reiterated that the registration of gifts (Hiba) is not required under Mohammedan Law.

If valid requisites of the gift (declaration, acceptance, and possession) are fulfilled, then the validity of the gift cannot be affected even if it remains unregistered, the Court said.

“Thus, registration of gift is not required under Mohammedan Law and, the unwritten and unregistered gift executed by the donor in favour of donees is valid.”

The essential requisites of a valid gift are: -

"a) The gift has to be necessarily declared by the person giving the gift, i.e., the donor;

b) Such a gift has to be accepted either impliedly or explicitly by or on behalf of the donee; and

c) Apart from declaration and acceptance, there is also a requirement of delivery of possession for a gift to be valid."

The Court said all the aforesaid conditions ought to be met necessarily to make a valid gift.

"It is a fact that the requirements for the validity of a gift deed are sequential. One must follow the other. The latter can only hold water if the first one is complied with. In other words, if (a) is not complied with, (b) and (c) would not be of consequence; similarly, if (a) and (c) are met without (b), it would still be of no consequence. In the end, all three conditions must be met.", the court observed.

“Under Mohammedan Law, a gift is to be effected in the manner laid down under the law. If the conditions prescribed by that law are fulfilled, the gift is valid, even though it is not effected by a registered instrument. But if the conditions are not fulfilled, the gift is not valid even though it may have been effected by a registered instrument. Therefore, a valid gift could be made by oral statements as well so long as the three requirements as discussed above are met thereby. This is because registration is not a requirement which obviates the need for a gift to be reduced in writing.”, the Court added.

Background

The bench comprising Justice CT Ravikumar and Justice Sanjay Karol was hearing an appeal filed against the Karnataka High Court's decision that affirmed the trial court's decision refusing to grant ownership rights to the Appellants based on the partition made by One Sultan Saheb via oral gift.

The Appellant contended that there was a valid gift even though it was unregistered.

The Court observed that while a gift under Mohammedan Law does not require registration and can be made orally, the partition of property during the owner's lifetime is impermissible. Although an oral gift could have been valid, the essential condition of a clear and unequivocal declaration of the gift by the donor (Sultan Saheb) was not established.

Therefore, the Court affirmed the High Court's decision and dismissed the appeal.

Appearance:

For Appellant(s) Mr. Basava Prabhu S. Patil, Sr. Adv. Mr. Samarth Kashyap, Adv. Mr. V. N. Raghupathy, AOR Mr. Radhakrishna S Hegde, Adv. Mr. Rajeev Singh, AOR

For Respondent(s) Mr. S N Bhat, Sr. Adv. Mr. Tarun Kumar Thakur, Adv. Ms. Parvati Bhat, Adv. Mr. Abhay Choudhary M, Adv. Mr. Vivek Ram R, Adv. Ms. Anuradha Mutatkar, AOR Mr. Rajeev Singh, AOR

Case Title: MANSOOR SAHEB (DEAD) & ORS. VERSUS SALIMA (D) BY LRS. & ORS.

Citation : 2024 LiveLaw (SC) 1023

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Related Report: Partition Of Property During Owner's Lifetime Impermissible In Mohammedan Law : Supreme Court