Expert Explains

I have a piece of land that I want to give on joint promotion..the joint promoter wants to pay an advance, and for balance he wants to enter into an agreement specifying the due dates of payment of instalment and also give postdated cheques.  Is such unregisterd agreement enforceable in law if the land is not registered?—SS Subramanian

Even if a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) typed in due stamp paper is not registered is also valid. However, the law after the RERA Act came into force is different.
I own a property in Kerala jointly with my brother and sister through a will executed by our mother. We plan to partition the property within ourselves by mutual agreement. I have already executed in favour of my children an instrument covering my share of the above property in the form of a registered will. Please advice whether it is legally correct to execute and register the parvtition deed specifying therein my share of property in the name of my children alone?

—VR Sundareswaran
The partition deed can be made only among the partners to the property. Your will (even if it registered) cannot have any legal value until your demise. Further several times it can be altered by a subsequent instruments (registered or not) can cancel earlier one. Once you get your share from the partition deed then that alone can be willed away by you. At the moment you can’t bring your children into it. I have a property measuring 5040 sq ft land with a small building in Nandambakkam.

The land is being classified as Gramma Natham in the land records. Can you please explain what is the implication of the same with respect to selling or utilisation of that property for new construction?
—Ashok Bajaj
Grama Natham is defined in law lexicon as a land upon which houses can be built in a village. It can be sold and bought.

We are four daughters and one son, my mother is not alive. Our father sold his property in Secunderabad in 2015 and has since bought a flat in Mysore. Please tell me how we daughters can contest for equal share from the sale proceeds ? Do we have a stake in this deed too ?—VS Your question is not clear. No doubt daughters and sons are treated equally in the matter of succession to the ancestral properties. But it will    not be available if the property was owned by your father through his self earning.

Therefore unless you establish that the secunderabad property was your forefathers, you may not get any share whether equal or unequal. But if the Mysore house was bought out of any ancestral property, then  you can stake your claim.

I have a house built in a plot purchased 13 years ago at Coimbatore that I am currently residing in. Should I apply for a seperate patta for the property, to enjoy my undisputed right over it?. As of now, my name is appearing in the combined patta list obtained from the Tehsildar’s office .—AV Kedilaya
Since your name is appearing in the joint patta that is sufficient for your ownership. Applying and getting a separate patta only in respect of your land is a cumbersome process.

Justice  K Chandru is a former  judge of the Madras  High Court expertexplains@gmail.com