KULDIP MEHTA Vs. JAGDIP MEHTA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE present suit has brought into focus an interesting legal issue pertaining to immovable property. Property law has an unenviable reputation for its complexity. And I must confess that this reputation is thoroughly deserved. Of all the laws, I find myself most ignorant regarding law relating to property. The problem is not with property, but with conveyancing, since the latter is concerned with how rights in property are created and transferred.

(2.) THE largest estate in land is absolute ownership. But in today's world, due to down planning and building laws, since most of the urban land is held on certain conditions, the ancient maxim: cujus est solum, ejus est usque est ad coelum et ad inferos, meaning that the owner of the soil is presumed to own everything 'up to the sky and down to the center of the earth' but become redundant, probably to be kept in the legal archives.

(3.) THE dispute relates to a will, Ex. PW -1/1, executed by him on 18.2.80. The will reads as under: -