Adverse possession

Adverse possession, is the possession of property by a person which is adverse to every other person having, or claiming to have a right of possession by virtue of a different title. The law of prescriptive rights is best summed up by the Brocard, ‘nec vi, nec clam, nec precario’, indicating the acquisition of a right by prescription must be in circumstances that exclude ‘force, stealth or licence’. A prescriptive right is essentially one that is created by uncontested assertion of the right for a given period of time. The principle is based in many ways on a sort of estoppel in rem. In India, the Limitation Act, 1963 is the legislation that governs the period within which suits are to be filed, etc.. The principle that pervades statutes of limitation at common law is that ‘limitation extinguishes the remedy, but not the right’ this means that the legal right itself is not defeated, but only the right to claim it in a court of law is extinguished. An exception to this general rule is the law of prescriptive rights, whereby the right itself is destroyed. Section 27 of the limitation Act, 1963 proclaims:

Section 27: Extinguishment of Right to Property- At the determination of the period hereby limited to any person for instituting a suit for possession of any property, his right to such property shall be extinguished.

This provision, when read with Articles 64 and 65 of the Schedule to the Limitation Act, 1963 establishes the law of adverse possession as it stands in India today. These two Articles both prescribe a period of twelve years within which the right to claim a particular property is extinguished, but the two differ in so far as the date on which such period of limitation begins to run.

Article 64 deals with cases where the dispute is over possession not necessarily based title, and in such cases the period of limitation runs from the time when the plaintiff was dispossessed of the property.

Article 65 deals with cases where the dispute is over title as such also and in such cases the period of limitation runs from the time when the defendant becomes adverse to that of plaintiff.

Adverse possession of the land is the process by which title to another’s land is acquired without his permission. Adverse Possession is a possession which is opposed to once interest of the real owner of the property. It is possession in denial of the title of the true owner. According to Supreme Court of India, “The law as it exists is extremely harsh for the true owners and a windfall for a dishonest person who had illegally taken possession of the property of the true owner.” In layman language it is called “land grabbing.” Roots of this type of land grabbing lies in the national policy called “Land to the Tiller”. Although the aim of the policy was to abolish of intermediaries between the tiller and Government, some dishonest person used this policy as a license to grab the other person’s land.

Once adverse possession is proved by the person despite by wrong means, the true owner loses his right over the land/property. A person can prove adverse possession if the possession is:

• Actual - Adverse possession consists of actual occupation of the land with the intent to keep it solely for oneself. Merely claiming the land or paying taxes on it, without actually possessing it, is insufficient. Entry on the land, whether legal or not, is essential. A trespass may commence adverse possession, but there must be more than temporary use of the property by a trespasser for adverse possession to be established. Physical acts must show that the possessor is exercising the dominion over the land that an average owner of similar property would exercise. Ordinary use of the property—for example, planting and harvesting crops or cutting and selling timber—indicates actual possession. In some states acts that constitute actual possession are found in statute.

• Open and Notorious

An adverse possessor must possess land openly for the entire world to see, as a true owner would. Secretly occupying another’s lands does not give the occupant any legal rights. Clearing, fencing, cultivating, or improving the land demonstrates open and notorious possession, while actual residence on the land is the most open and notorious possession of all. The owner must have actual knowledge of the adverse use, or the claimant’s possession must be so notorious that it is generally known by the public or the people in the neighborhood. The notoriety of the possession puts the owner on notice that the land will be lost unless he or she seeks to recover possession of it within a certain time.

• Exclusive

Adverse possession will not ripen into title unless the claimant has had exclusive possession of the land. Exclusive possession means sole physical occupancy. The claimant must hold the property as his or her own, in opposition to the claims of all others. Physical improvement of the land, as by the construction of fences or houses, is evidence of exclusive possession.

• Hostile

Possession must be hostile, sometimes called adverse, if title is to mature from adverse possession. Hostile possession means that the claimant must occupy the land in opposition to the true owner’s rights. One type of hostile possession occurs when the claimant enters and remains on land under color of title. Color of title is the appearance of title as a result of a deed that seems by its language to give the claimant valid title but, in fact, does not because some aspect of it is defective. If a person, for example, was suffering from a legal disability at the time he or she executed a deed, the grantee-claimant does not receive actual title. But the grantee-claimant does have color of title because it would appear to anyone reading the deed that good title had been conveyed. If a claimant possesses the land in the manner required by law for the full statutory period, his or her color of title will become actual title as a result of adverse possession.

• Continuous & Uninterrupted – All elements of adverse possession must be met at all times through the statutory period in order for a claim to be successful. The statutory period, or “statute of limitations”, is the amount of time the claimant must hold the land in order to successfully claim “adverse possession”. (In India as per Limitation Act 1963, the statutory period is 12 years)