Report No. 193
Prescription:
The Act of 1963 deals with prescription, among other matters. It is well known that a law which prescribes a period of prescription extinguishes the title to the property at the end of a specified period rather than merely barring the judicial remedy. Such a provision so far as property, moveable and immoveable is concerned, is contained in section 27 of the Act which reads as follows:
"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."
In as much as there is to be no hiatus in the right to ownership of property, when the title to property of the previous owner is extinguished, it passes on to the possessor and his right to possession gets transformed into ownership. Section 27 applies to movable as well as to immovable property. Under Art 65 in the Schedule to the Act, a person in adverse possession of immovable property acquires title to the property. Such possession must be open and continuous and in defiance of the title of the real owner for twelve years so that the person can prescribe title by adverse possession. So far as Government property is concerned, Article 112 prescribes a requirement of thirty years for prescribing title by adverse possession.
The principles of law evolved by the Courts also permits acquisition of limited rights by adverse possession. For example, where a person enters into possession as a usufructuary mortgagee under an unregistered mortgage deed, he will acquire the limited rights of a usufructuary mortgagee at the end of twelve years possession.
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