In Brief
The appellant claimed ownership of agricultural suit fields based on a Will left by the deemed owner. The High Court dismissed the claim, holding that Section 57 of the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1958 prohibits transfer of such land by Will and that the owner's right was personal and non-inheritable. The Supreme Court reversed the High Court's judgment. On a plain reading of Section 57, while it prohibits transfer by sale, gift, exchange, mortgage, lease or assignment without the Collector's sanction, it does not prohibit transfer by Will. Devolution by Will is not a 'transfer' but a mode of succession occurring by operation of law. Property rights of a deemed owner are not purely personal and can devolve by inheritance unless expressly prohibited. The appeal was allowed and the suit decreed in the appellant's favour.
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