PART IV: ACQUISITION OF OWNERSHIP BY POSSESSION
Section 25. Acquisition of easements by prescription.
This section explains how certain legal rights over another person’s land (easements) can be legally acquired simply by using them openly and continuously for a long time.
Sub-section (1)
- Simple Translation: A person can gain an absolute, permanent, and legally untouchable right (absolute and indefeasible) to certain easements if they have used them peaceably, openly, as a right, and without interruption for a period of twenty years (20 years). The specific rights are:
- (i) access and use of light or air for a building (like having windows facing a specific direction).
- (ii) any way or watercourse or the use of any water (like a path across a neighbor’s field or using a shared stream).
- (iii) any other easement (whether affirmative or negative).
- Practical Example: Mr. A uses a specific path across his neighbor, Mr. B’s, backyard as a shortcut to the main road every day for 20 years. Mr. A does this openly, peacefully, and without asking permission (as of right). After 20 years, Mr. A gains a permanent legal easement of way, and Mr. B cannot legally block the path.
Sub-section (2)
- Simple Translation: The required period of 20 years must be calculated as a period that ends within the two years immediately before the date the lawsuit challenging the claim was formally filed.
- Practical Example: Mr. A sues Mr. B on June 1, 2025, claiming his 20-year easement of way. To prove his claim, Mr. A must show continuous use for 20 years ending sometime between June 1, 2023, and May 31, 2025. If his last use was on May 30, 2023, the claim would fail because the 20-year period did not end within the two years before the suit was filed.
Sub-section (3)
- Simple Translation: If the property over which the right is being claimed belongs to the Government (Central or State), the required period of continuous, uninterrupted enjoyment is thirty years (30 years) instead of the usual twenty years.
- Practical Example: A person uses a Government-owned path to access their farm. To gain an easement over that Government land, they must prove continuous use for 30 years, not 20 years.
Explanation (for Section 25)
- Simple Translation: An interruption that legally breaks the continuity of the 20-year (or 30-year) period only counts as an interruption if two things happen:
- (i) an actual discontinuance of the possession or enjoyment occurs because another person actively obstructed it (e.g., built a fence).
- (ii) the person claiming the right (the claimant) is aware of the obstruction and the person who made it, but submits to the obstruction or accepts it for a period of one full year after becoming aware of it.
- Practical Example: After 19 years of using the path, the neighbor (Mr. B) blocks the path with a fence. Mr. A sees the fence. If Mr. A waits 14 months before filing a suit or tearing down the fence, the interruption has lasted over one year, and the 20-year clock is broken, forcing Mr. A to restart his claim from scratch. If he files the suit within 11 months, the interruption does not legally count.
This highly detailed part successfully completes the Computation rules and introduces the special provisions for Easements.
Section 26. Exclusion in favour of reversioner of servient tenement.
This section provides a safety net for property owners who cannot immediately stop someone from gaining an easement because their property is leased out.
- Simple Translation: If the property over which an easement (like a right of way) is being used is currently held by someone with a limited or temporary interest (such as a tenant on a lease longer than three years, or someone with a right to use the land for their lifetime), the time the tenant/life-interest holder allowed the easement to be used is excluded from the 20-year calculation. This exception applies only if the true owner, who gets the property back when the temporary interest ends (the reversioner), challenges the easement claim within three years of regaining possession.
- Practical Example: Mr. X owns a piece of land but leases it to a company for 10 years. During those 10 years, the company allows a neighbor to use a path across the land. The neighbor is trying to establish a 20-year easement. When the lease expires, Mr. X gets the land back (the determination of such interest). The 10 years the company was in possession are not counted toward the neighbor’s 20-year claim, provided Mr. X sues the neighbor to stop the use of the path within three years of the lease ending.
Section 27. Extinguishment of right to property.
This is the ultimate consequence of the Limitation Act.
- Simple Translation: When the legal time limit to file a lawsuit to recover possession of any property (movable or immovable) expires, the plaintiff not only loses the right to sue for it, but their actual legal right to the property itself is completely destroyed (extinguished).
- Practical Example: The limitation period to sue for possession of immovable property is 12 years (Article 65 of the Schedule). Mr. A is wrongfully dispossessed by Mr. B. If Mr. A waits 12 years and 1 day to file the suit, his right to possession is extinguished. The law treats Mr. B, the person who had wrongful possession for over 12 years, as the new rightful owner (often referred to as acquiring title by adverse possession).