The Supreme Court has delivered a landmark judgment in an important case involving the property of minors, protecting them from unauthorized transactions made by their parents or guardians. The court has clearly stated that if a minor’s property is sold by their guardian without the court’s permission, then after attaining adulthood, the minor can reject the transaction simply by their conduct. This ‘rejection by conduct’ will be considered legally valid and does not require filing a formal lawsuit in court.
What the court said?
A bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and Prasanna B. Varale delivered this judgment in the case of K. S. Shivappa vs. Smt. K. Neelamma. Justice Mithal held that when a minor attains majority, he or she can clearly and indisputably reject a voidable transfer of property made by his or her guardian.
This act of repudiation could be such that, after attaining majority, the person sells the property themselves or transfers it to someone else. The Court emphasized that the law does not specify how such a voidable transaction should be repudiated, so repudiation by conduct would also be valid.
Understand the rules
To buttress its decision, the court cited sections 7 and 8 of the Hindu Guardianship of Minorities Act, 1956. According to these provisions, the natural guardian of a minor has no legal right to sell, mortgage, or lease any portion of the minor’s immovable property for a period exceeding five years without the court’s prior permission. If the guardian does so, the transaction will become voidable at the minor’s instance. The court held that it is not necessary to file a suit to cancel a prior sale deed; rather, a rejection by conduct within three years of attaining majority is also valid.
The entire dispute involved two adjacent plots (plot numbers 56 and 57) in Shamanur village, Davanagere district, Karnataka, that Rudrappa had purchased in 1971 in the names of his three minor sons. Rudrappa sold these plots to a third party without obtaining permission from the district court. After reaching adulthood, the minors, along with their mother, sold the same plots to K.S. Shivappa.