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Section 2: Repeal of Acts, Saving of certain enactments, incidents, rights, liabilities

Transfer of Property Act • Official Statutory Text & Practice Guide

Statutory Regulation
Legal Standard
Competent Court / Tribunal
Act 1882
Section 1 All 137 Sections of Transfer of Property Act Section 3

Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 2

Section 2 provides saving clauses preserving customary rights, incidents of contracts, ancestral personal laws, and transfers by operation of law from being repealed or abrogated by the TPA.

  • Savings Scope: Nothing in the Act shall affect: (a) provisions of any enactment not expressly repealed, (b) terms or incidents of contracts or constitutions of property not inconsistent with the Act, (c) any right or liability arising out of legal relations created before 1 July 1882, or (d) any transfer by operation of law or in execution of a court decree.
  • Personal Law Savings: Historically saved rules of Mohammedan law regarding gifts (Hiba) and family settlements, subject to statutory limits.
  • Operation of Law Exception: Involuntary transfers (court auctions, succession, insolvency vests) are outside the Act's scope, which governs transfers inter vivos exclusively.
Key Landmark Precedents:
  • B. Arvind Kumar v. Govt. of India, (2007) 5 SCC 745: The Supreme Court held that a court auction sale in execution of a decree is a transfer by operation of law saved by Section 2(d), not an inter vivos transfer governed by Section 54.
  • Commissioner of Income Tax v. P.V. Kalyanasundaram, (2007) 10 SCC 1: Affirmed that transfers by operation of law take effect independently of formal TPA conveyancing formalities.
Courtroom Practice & Strategic Litigation Guidance:

Do not apply Section 54 or 58 restrictions to court auction sales or testamentary transmissions; these are governed by the Code of Civil Procedure and Indian Succession Act under Section 2 savings.

Section 1 All 137 Sections of Transfer of Property Act Section 3