adverse possession
A person in possession of land, without the owner's permission and in a manner hostile to the owner, openly and continuously for twelve years (thirty years against the Government), acquires title. The Limitation Act bars the owner's suit for possession after that period, and s.27 extinguishes the owner's right itself.
The possession must be nec vi, nec clam, nec precario: not by force, not secretly, not by permission. A tenant, licensee or co-owner cannot claim adverse possession without a clear assertion of hostile title known to the owner. The Supreme Court held in 2019 that a person who has perfected title by adverse possession can also sue as plaintiff to protect it, not only use it as a defence.
Example
Because the neighbour had fenced and cultivated the strip openly since 2008 without permission, he had perfected title by adverse possession by 2020.
In Indian law
- Article 65 and Article 112, Schedule, Limitation Act, 1963; Section 27 (extinguishment of right)
- Ravinder Kaur Grewal v. Manjit Kaur, 2019 INSC 930
See also
nec vi nec clam nec precario · possession · prescription · animus possidendi
Read more in the study notes
- Prescription, adverse possession and extinguishment of title (sections 25 to 27) (Civil Procedure Code and Limitation Act)
- Limitation Act, 1963: salient features, bar of limitation, condonation of delay and legal disability (Civil Procedure Code and Limitation Act)
- Possession: corpus and animus, kinds and possessory remedies (Jurisprudence)
- Ownership: idea, incidents, kinds and the difference from possession (Jurisprudence)
- The Karnataka SC and ST (Prohibition of Transfer of Certain Lands) Act, 1978 (Land Law)
- Temporal dimensions of rights and legal relations (Legal Concepts)