DEFINITATION

Salmond while defining the term property, observed that the term might be understood in one of
the three senses mentioned below:

(i) The word property consists of all the legal rights of a person. That is to say that it includes
comprehensive ownership of a man on material as well as incorporeal things.

(ii) The term includes not a man’s personal rights, but only his proprietary rights.

(iii) The term includes the rights of ownership in material things such as building etc.

Theories of Property
Natural Theory
According to this theory, property is based on the principle of natural reason derived from the
nature of things. The occupation of an ownerless object acquired the property as a result of
individual labour. According to Grotius, all things originally lacked an owner, and whosoever earned
or captured it became its owner. originally, items belonged to people as a whole. There was no
concept of individual ownership. It was with time and the evolution of humankind that the need for
ownership and possession ascended. The theory of occupancy therefore became the ground and
foundation of all Properties.

Metaphysical Theory
Kant and Hegel propounded this theory. A particular thing belongs to the owner when he is so
associated with it that anyone who uses it without his permission does an injury to him. But to
better justify the law of property, we must go outside cases of possession where there is an actual
corporeal relation to the entity and interference is aggression upon personality. In simpler words,
properties are the object on which a person has the liberty to direct his will.

Historical Theory
According to this theory, private property had deliberated and steady growth. It has full-fledged out
of a collective group or joint property. There were many stages in the development of the personal
property. The first phase of natural possession existed independently of the law. The second phase
of juristic possession was a conception of both fact and law. The last phase in the development cycle
was that of ownership. Ownership became a virtuously legal concept. According to Dean Roscoe
Pound, the original form of property was a group property. It was a matter of time before families
were partitioned and individual property came into being.

Positive Theory
The founder of this theory was Spencer. He built his theory on the fundamental law of freedom.
According to him, the property was an outcome of individual labor. No person has any moral right to
property that he has not acquired by his labor and effort.

Psychological Theory
According to this theory, a property derived into reality from the greedy instinct of man. Every
individual desire to own belongings, and that brings into existence property. Bentham has rightly
said, "Property is nothing more than the basis of a certain expectation of deriving certain advantages
by a thing of reason."

Possession:
According to Salmond Property may acquire through possession. Possession means Physical Control
over a thing or an object. Also, Salmond was of the opinion that the possessor of the property enjoys
good title until evicted by the real owner. The property which belongs to no one that is Res’s nullius,
belongs to the first possessor of it and he acquires a valid title to it against the world.

Possession is divided into two categories:

1.Possession in fact: It is an actual or physical possession. It is physical relation to a thing.

2.Possession in law: It means possession in the eye of law. It means a possession which is recognized
and protected by law.

There are two modes of acquiring possession:

1.Delivery: Delivery is the voluntary act from one person to another. It is usually a lawful mode of
possession. Delivery may be actual or constructive. In actual delivery the thing is physically delivered.

2.Taking: Taking implies an act exclusively on the part of the person who physically takes the
Possession. It is acquisition of the Possession without the consent of previous Possession.
Transferee acquires the possession without the knowledge or consent of the former Possessor of the
thing. It is usually possessio-civilis. It may or may not be lawful. If it is lawful then it is legal
possession that is possessio-juri.

Case Law:

South Staffordshire Waterworks Co. v. Sharman (gold rings case) :

The plaintiff company employed the defendant to clean a pond owned by the company upon its
land. While cleaning the pond the defendant found gold rings at its bottom. The court held that the
company had the right of possession over the rings as the pond was owned by it upon its land.

Prescription:
Property acquired or destructed due to lapse of time.

According to Salmond: "Prescription may be defined as the effect of lapse of time in creating and
destroying rights; it is the operation of time as a vetitive fact.

Prescriptions are of two kinds:

1.Positive Prescription: Right over property acquired by lapse of time.

2.Negative Prescription: Destroys the right on property with lapse of time.

Agreements:
Property may also be acquired by agreement which is enforceable by law.

The agreements must be Valid Agreements:

Valid agreements are those which satisfy all the four conditions which are as follows:

1)There should be two or more parties to an agreement.

2)Mutual consent of the parties

3)It should be communicated;

4)There should be common intention to affect the legal relationship.

Inheritance:
Another method of acquiring property is by means of inheritance. When a person dies certain rights
survive him and pass on to his heirs and successors. There are others which die with him. Those
rights which survive him are called heritable or inheritable rights.

1.Intestate Succession

2.Testamentary Succession

In situations where the person dies intestate i.e., without creating a will then that person’s property
is transferred among his legal heirs by the applicable laws of intestate succession.

The individual who creates the will is called the testator and the individual in whose favour the will is
created is known as the legatee.

Gift:
For the purpose of making a gift of immovable property, the transfer must be affected by a
registered instrument signed by or on behalf of the donor, and attested by at least two witnesses.

For the purpose of making a gift of movable property, the transfer may be affected either by a
registered instrument signed as aforesaid or by delivery. Such delivery may be made in the same
way as goods sold may be delivered.

Conclusion
The actual reason for the origin of the concept of property is still shrouded in misery. Although many
have come up with distinctively differentiative theories, none were free of criticism. Nevertheless,
the matter of transaction/transfer of property is gaining importance day-by-day due to growing
complexities of life in modern economic world.