Property

1. In its widest sense, property includes all the legal rights of a person. It covers everything that a person can lawfully own, enjoy, transfer or keep others from. Property is all that a man has in law, whether corporeal or incorporeal. It is not limited to physical things. Debts, copyrights, easements and patents are all property.

1. Property is a bundle of rights. Ownership consists of several rights, namely to possess, use, enjoy, transfer and exclude others.
2. Property is a legal concept. Only rights that the law recognises and protects can be called property.
3. Property may be corporeal or incorporeal. It covers physical objects and intangible rights.
4. Property is enforceable. It is enforced either as a right in rem, which binds everyone, or as a right in personam, which binds only a particular person.

Basic Classification

Classification by rights

1. Corporeal property is movable or immovable. Goods and vehicles are movable. Land and buildings are immovable.
2. Incorporeal property is of two kinds. One is a right in another's property, which is jus in re aliena. The other is a right in one's own property, which is jus in re propria.

1. It is the right over one's own property, and it is absolute ownership. The owner has the greatest control that the law allows. Ownership is a bundle of rights united in one person.
2. It is a right in rem. It gives complete control, subject to law, and it lasts until the property is lawfully transferred or the right ends.
3. It includes six rights. These are the rights to possess, to use and enjoy, to the fruits (usufruct), to transfer, to exclude others, and to destroy or alienate subject to law.
4. Intellectual property is a modern form of it. Each kind has its own statute and time limit.

1. It forms the core of property law. All limited rights are derived from it.

1. It is a right over the property of another person. Ownership stays with one person, and limited rights are given to another. These rights are limited in scope, exist at the expense of ownership and are enforceable by law.
2. It balances private ownership with economic needs. A person who cannot buy land can use it through a lease, and a lender can lend safely because of a mortgage.

1. A servitude is a right to use another's land in a definite and limited way, without possession or ownership. When possession is transferred, it is a lease. When only a right to use is transferred, it is a servitude.
2. A servitude has five elements. There must be a dominant tenement, which is the land that benefits, and a servient tenement, which is the land that is burdened. The use must be limited and for a definite purpose, and the law must recognise it. In Re Ellenborough Park (1955), the English Court of Appeal listed four conditions for an easement. There must be a dominant and a servient tenement, the right must benefit the dominant land, the two pieces of land must have different owners, and the right must be capable of being granted. The court held that the right of the owners of houses around a park to enjoy the park was a valid easement.
3. A servitude differs from a lease and from a licence.

There are four types of servitude.

A servitude can be acquired by long use. Under Section 15 of the Easements Act, 1882, a person who has enjoyed a right of way or similar right openly and without interruption for twenty years acquires an easement by prescription.

1. Possession:

   Control with the intention to possess. The law protects possession against everyone except the true owner. Long, peaceful and uninterrupted possession may ripen into ownership. A person who occupies land for the legal period without the owner's action is an example.

2. Prescription:

   Acquiring or losing rights through time. A right enjoyed openly and continuously for the legal period is recognised by law. Positive prescription acquires rights, and negative prescription ends them. A right of way acquired by long use is an example.

3. Agreement:

   Voluntary transfer between the parties. It rests on free consent and is governed by statute. It includes sale, gift, exchange, lease and mortgage. Buying land by a registered sale deed is an example.

4. Inheritance:

   Transfer on the death of the owner. Property passes to the legal heirs by will, which is testamentary succession, or by operation of law, which is intestate succession. Children inheriting the property of their parents is an example.

1. Property was once a fundamental right, and is now a constitutional legal right. Articles 19(1)(f) and 31 originally protected it. After independence, States passed land reform laws to abolish zamindari. The courts struck down some of these laws for violating the right to property. Parliament responded with the First Amendment in 1951, which added the Ninth Schedule to protect such laws from challenge.
2. The 44th Amendment (1978) removed the right from the fundamental rights. It now exists as a legal right under Article 300A, which says that no person shall be deprived of his property save by authority of law.
3. Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala (1973) put a limit on amendments.** The case arose from a challenge to Kerala land reform laws. The Supreme Court held that Parliament can amend the Constitution but cannot destroy its basic structure. Although the right to property was later taken out of Part III, the case ensured that constitutional supremacy and the limits on Parliament remain.

Property is a dynamic and changing concept in jurisprudence. It includes tangible objects and intangible rights that the law recognises. Classifying property helps us understand the scope, nature and enforcement of proprietary rights. A sound understanding of property is essential for understanding ownership, possession and legal relations in society.