Immovable property has been defined under different statues or legislations. These definitions provide the scope and the kinds of property that are included in the category of immovable property.
As far as Transfer of Property Act, 1882 is concerned, immovable property has been defined under section 3 of the Act, which lays down the interpretation clause. The definition provides a very small list of items, to be excluded from the category of immovable property, and therefore the courts generally resolve to definitions provided under The General Clauses Act of 1897 or The Registration Act, 1908.
The definitions are provided as under:
‘immovable property shall not include growing crops, standing timber or grass’;
2. The General Clauses Act, 1897 (SECTION 3[26])-
‘immovable property includes land, benefits that arise out of the land as well as things attached to the Earth or permanently fastened to anything to attached to the Earth.’
3. The Registration Act, 1908 (SECTION 2[6])-
‘immovable property includes land, building, hereditary allowances, rights to ways, lights, ferries, fisheries, or any other benefits arising out of the land or anything that is attached to the Earth, or permanently fastened to anything attached to the Earth, but not standing timber, growing crops or grass.’
In order to improve the scope of immovable property, and to give them a more clear definition, the court has provided different judgments in various cases, which have clarified the position of such immovable property, with the main intention of distinguishing them from movable property.
A landmark case in this regard was Marshall v. Green, wherein there was a sale of trees to be cut and taken away immediately. It was considered as a sale of movable property. The reason being that the parties did not intent to provide any further nourishment to the trees from the land on which they were grown. The land was simply used as a warehouse for the trees.
Another case, Seeni Chettiar v. Sananthnathan, involved parties entering into an agreement for the sale of cut trees for a period of four years. The question was of registration of sale deed.
A sale deed can be registered only when it involves the sale of an immovable property. In this case, since the parties wanted to derive the benefits of the land for a period of four years, and the trees were to get constant nourishment for four years, from the land, therefore they were considered as immovable property, and hence the registration was compulsory.
