Introduction
Transfer of Property Act
It is an Act to define and amend the law relating to transfer of property by act of parties (i.e. not by operational of law). i.e., in case of inheritance (succession), insolvency, forfeiture, or sale in execution of a decree.
It relates to transfers of property inter vivos, i.e. voluntary transfers between living persons, and has no application to the disposal of property by will.
The Act came into force on 1st July, 1882. The Act applies to the whole of India.
“The chief objects of the Transfer of Property Act are two first, to bring the rules which regulate the transmission of property between living persons into harmony with the rules affecting its devolution upon death, and thus to furnish the complement to the work commenced in framing the law of intestate and testamentary succession; and secondly, to complete the code of contract law, so far as it relates to immovable property.”
The Act is not, and does not purport to be, an exhaustive enactment. i.e., it does not cover the entire dimension of transfer of property. If the property is movable, the Sale of Goods Act will apply, and if it is immovable, the Transfer of Property Act will govern the case.
The Transfer of Property Act, being predominantly a codification of substantive rights, and not merely of procedural law has no retrospective effect.