Ostensible
Owner
It is dealt in
section 41 of Transfer of Property Act. Ostensible owner means when a person is
owner of property but he/she does not represent the property when needed but
instead of him/her, their relative or any other person represents it, that is
ostensible owner.
For Example, “A”
and “B” are husband and wife, “B” is the owner of all the properties they owned
but only “A” represents and deals with the matter of those properties. Here “A”
can be said an ostensible owner.
And under this
section transfer of property by an ostensible owner is not voidable(which means
it is valid).
It is valid
because the real owner allowed ostensible owner to act as real one and when ostensible
owner made representation then he cannot retract from it because of Doctrine of
Estoppel.
What is Doctrine
of Estoppel regards to this section?
When someone made
representation with intention that other person believe and act upon it and
then that other person acted upon it then the first person cannot retract from
his representation.
According to this
section, ostensible owner should have consent of real owner either express or
implied. Consent should be freely given and real owner must be competent to
give consent.
Ostensible owner
can put property on rent, lease or even can sell it. In case of dispute the burden
of proof is on transferee because it is transferee’s duty to get clarify about
all the details of ostensible and real owner when buying the property.
These are not
ostensible owner
A servant, agent,
mahant, coparcener, co-sharer, any manager in possession of property, manager
of joint family.
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