The High Court has ruled that a mother cannot alienate/sell property of a minor, when the father of the minor is alive she is a de facto guardian and cannot sell the minor's property.

Justice A M Dhavale, while deciding a petition filed by a 12-year-old child, said, "If the property inherited by son from his father is not ancestral, the mother has no right to sell it. She as a de facto guardian has no right to alienate the property of her minor son."

The son has challenged the sale of his property in the year 1989, by his mother Kushavartabai Paul, claiming that the sale was void and illegal. It was argued that the property was transferred using coercion and the sale itself was void. However, the defendant Shivaji Paul to whom the property was sold opposed the plea saying, "Land was sold for legal necessity and for the benefit of the minor. There was no coercion or undue influence or force."

The court after going through the evidence said, "The sale effected by mother is void." The court accordingly directed the registry to send its order to the sub-registrar before the sale deed declared as void was executed to correct the same.