Transfer of Property Act Section 38 — Transfer by person authorised only under certain circumstances to transfer
CHAPTER I PRELIMINARY
General
Summary
If a person is allowed to sell or transfer property only under certain changing conditions, and they sell it claiming those conditions exist, the law will treat those conditions as true for the buyer’s sake—provided the buyer made a reasonable effort to check that the conditions were real and acted honestly. This protects a buyer who genuinely believes the seller had the right to sell, even if the conditions were not actually met. For example, a widow selling property for her own maintenance, where the buyer reasonably checks that the income is truly insufficient, is treated as having the legal need to sell, so the sale stands against the seller and any other heirs.
Official Text
Where any person, authorised only under circumstances in their nature variable to dispose of immoveable property, transfers such property for consideration, alleging the existence of such circumstances, they shall, as between the transferee on the one part and the transferor and other persons (if any) affected by the transfer on the other part, be deemed to have existed, if the transferee, after using reasonable care to ascertain the existence of such circumstances, has acted in good faith. Illustration A, a Hindu widow, whose husband has left collateral heirs, alleging that the property held by her as such is insufficient for her maintenance, agrees, for purposes neither religious nor charitable, to sell a field, part of such property, to B. B satisfies himself by reasonable enquiry that the income of the property is insufficient for A's maintenance, and that the sale of the field is necessary, and acting in good faith, buys the field from A. As between B on the one part and A and the collateral heirs on the other part, a necessity for the sale shall be deemed to have existed.