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Gangubai Raghunath Ayare v. Gangaram Sakharam Dhuri (D) Thr. His Lrs. and Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2025 INSC 355Decided 17 Mar 2025
C.A. No.-003183-003183 - 2009
Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah · Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia

Background

After the owner of a Bandra (Mumbai) property, "Sai Niwas," died in 1967, he was survived by his widow, one son (Vishnu), and four daughters, including the plaintiff Gangubai. The plaintiff alleged that Vishnu, while managing the property, took her and her sisters' signatures on blank papers and later sold half the property to a purchaser (whose legal heirs are the respondents here) on the strength of a Relinquishment Deed she says she never validly executed. The Trial Court declared the sale deed void in the plaintiff's favour, but the Bombay High Court reversed this, holding the sale valid only to the extent of Vishnu's own undivided share.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court agreed with the High Court that Vishnu could only have transferred his own 1/5th undivided share in the property, not the whole, so the sale deed was rightly held valid only to that extent rather than void altogether. It also upheld the High Court's view that once the Trial Court found the suit for "administration of the estate" itself not maintainable (because Vishnu's other legal heirs were never brought on record), it could not indirectly grant a partition-like relief without the proper parties (here, the plaintiff's sisters) being impleaded. The Court directed that the plaintiff not be disturbed in her possession, and that a status quo be maintained, until the property is properly partitioned in a separate suit, which the Trial Court was asked to decide within three months of filing.

Lesson Learnt

A co-owner of family property can only sell his own share, not the whole property: a buyer only gets what the seller actually owned. And relief like a specific share or partition cannot be granted in a suit that was framed for something else (like estate administration) without the correct parties before the court.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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