Transfer of Property Act Section 43 — Transfer by unauthorised person who subsequently acquires interest in property transferred
CHAPTER I PRELIMINARY
General
Summary
If someone wrongly claims they have the right to sell a piece of land and then sells it for money, the buyer can choose to make that sale apply to any ownership rights the seller later gets in that same land, as long as the original sale agreement is still active. This rule does not affect buyers who later purchase the land in good faith, pay for it, and have no knowledge of the earlier buyer’s option. For example, if a person sells land they don’t own but later inherits that land, the original buyer can demand that the seller hand over the land.
Official Text
Where a person 3[fraudulently or] erroneously represents that he is authorised to transfer certain immovable property and professes to transfer such property for consideration, such transfer shall, at the option of the transferee, operate on any interest which the transferor may acquire in such property at any time during which the contract of transfer subsists. Nothing in this section shall impair the right of transferees in good faith for consideration without notice of the existence of the said option. Illustration A, a Hindu who has separated from his father B, sells to C three fields, X, Y and Z, representing that A is authorised to transfer the same. Of these fields Z does not belong to A, it having been retained by B on the partition; but on B's dying A as heir obtains Z.C, not having rescinded the contract of sale, may require A to deliver Z to him .