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Section 14: Rule against perpetuity

Transfer of Property Act • Official Statutory Text & Practice Guide

Statutory Regulation
Legal Standard
Competent Court / Tribunal
Act 1882
Section 13 All 137 Sections of Transfer of Property Act Section 15

Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 14

Tying up property indefinitely across unborn generations violates fundamental public policy favoring free commercial circulation and alienability of land.

  • Core Legal Standard: The rule against perpetuity invalidates any transfer of property designed to take effect after the lifetime of one or more persons living at the date of the transfer and the minority of some person who shall be in existence at the expiration of that period.
  • Operational Mechanism: Vesting cannot be postponed beyond the life of existing persons plus eighteen years (the statutory age of majority under the Indian Majority Act, 1875), with the added period of actual gestation if the beneficiary is conceived but unborn.

The statutory test evaluates potential invalidity at the date of execution: if at the moment the deed takes effect there exists any possibility that vesting might be delayed beyond the maximum statutory perpetuity period, the transfer is void ab initio, regardless of actual subsequent developments.

Key Landmark Precedents:
  • Cadell v. Palmer (1833) 1 Cl & Fin 372: The foundational English decision establishing the perpetuity period as lives in being plus a gross term of 21 years; in Indian law under Section 14, this was modified to lives in being plus minority (18 years) plus actual gestation.
  • Ram Newaz v. Nankoo (AIR 1926 Oudh 568): The court held that where vesting in an unborn person is delayed until that person attains the age of 25 years (exceeding minority), the transfer is void under Section 14 as infringing the rule against perpetuities.
Legal Commentary:

Unlike English law, which permits a perpetuity period of lives in being plus a gross term of 21 years in gross without reference to any person's infancy, Indian law strictly ties the post-life period to actual minority (18 years) of the ultimate beneficiary, plus actual period of gestation.

Section 13 All 137 Sections of Transfer of Property Act Section 15