This document discusses adverse possession, which refers to a situation where an individual who possesses property owned by someone else can become the legal owner if they meet certain occupancy requirements for the statutory period defined by law, usually 7 years or more. It notes that non-resident Indians often face issues of illegal possession and adverse possession of their properties due to prolonged absence. The document provides details on the requirements to claim adverse possession, such as continuous, hostile, actual, exclusive and open possession for the statutory period. It also discusses steps owners can take to prevent illegal possession of their properties and legal remedies available if possession has been lost.

1. Adverse Possession
Forget Ghosts there are real NANUs possessing
your property !
Serious Fraud Investigation Series

2. Adverse Possession
• Adverse possession implies a situation
under which an individual who is in
possession of property owned by somebody
else can become the owner.

3. Adverse Possession
• A lot of NRIs face issues of possession over
their property. Illegal possession and Adverse
possession – both are major issues that NRIs
face due to their prolonged absence from their
root country.
• It is important for people to understand the
terms and also ways of safeguarding
themselves from these problems

4. Adverse Possession

5. Adverse Possession

6. Adverse Possession

7. Adverse Possession
• Adverse possession implies a situation
under which an individual who is in
possession of property owned by somebody
else can become the owner.

8. Adverse Possession
• This is based on certain requirements that have
been met for a given period. The period is
defined as per the law of the area.
• The time could vary from state to state, but
it is seven years or more.

9. Adverse Possession

10. Adverse Possession
• In many cases, this depends on whether the
occupation was a result of trespassing
without any legal right or if it was done by
what is known as “a good faith mistake”;
meaning that the occupants were convinced
that they were justified in their occupation.

11. Adverse Possession

12. Adverse Possession
• This justification could be something like an
incorrect deed, known as colour of title.
• Specifically, these are the aspects that one
needs to keep in mind while renting out
one’s property or giving it to a caretaker.
Here’s how we can understand it

13. Adverse Possession

14. Adverse Possession
Possession
Possession is the state of having or owing
something for a particular time. It consists of
two elements:
• Physical control or power over the object
possessed
• Intention or will to exercise that power

15. Adverse Possession

16. Adverse Possession
• It is when the actual owner of a property loses
her/his ownership rights because of inaction on
his/her part to remove the trespasser within a
statutory period from the property.
• After the lapse of the statutory term of limitation
for eviction, the real owner is barred from starting
any legal procedure to repossess his/her estate,
and the trespasser procures title to that property.

17. Adverse Possession

18. Adverse Possession
• The sanctioned period of limitation for possession
of assets or any interest as per Limitation Act,
1963, is 12 years for private property and 30 years
for Government/public/state property from the date
since the trespasser adversely possesses the
ownership of the actual owner.
• The real owner has to stake the claim on his/her
property within the prescribed time limit

19. Adverse Possession

20. Adverse Possession
• In a judgement in 2013 against the Bangalore
Development Authority, the Supreme Court
stated that the time period of the illegal
occupation would be counted from the date of
purchase of the property and not from the date
of the ‘Mahazar’ (the petition).

21. Requirements for claiming the title by adverse
possession
• The requirements for obtaining title to the
property are:-
• Continuity: The occupation of the property by
the applicant must be unbroken, continuous, and
uninterrupted for the entire sanctioned period of
limitation.
• Hostile: This means that the claimant has
knowingly occupied the property in opposition to
the actual owner’s rights, for the statutory time
(12 or 30 years), and with the purpose of
acquiring the title.

22. Requirements for claiming the title by
adverse possession

23. Requirements for claiming the title by
adverse possession
• Actual: The person staying in the home with
the intention of keeping it should show that he
is exercising authority over the property by
performing physical acts such as construction,
planting and harvesting crops, repairs, and so
on.
• Exclusive: The claimant must have had sole
occupancy of the property for the statutory
period of limitation.

24. Actual

25. Open
• Open: The person claiming the title must
possess the land or house openly, and not in
secrecy, as a real owner would.
• Occupying another’s property quietly does
not give the trespassers any legal rights.
• The owner or the public must have actual
knowledge of the adverse use.

26. Open

27. Details that one has to present before the
court to claim adverse possession
• The applicant to claim the property title has to
share necessary facts and evidence. The details
that are required to share with the court are as
follows:
• the date he took the possession
• the nature and span of the occupation
• whether the claim of possession was known to
the actual owner or public
• the possession was undisturbed and open

28. Details that one has to present before the
court to claim adverse possession

29. Details that one has to present before
the court to claim adverse possession
• Debates
Over time, it has also been suggested that the
notion of adverse possession needs to be
reviewed. Some legal thinkers point out that there
might be less certainty in the law of possession.
• In many cases the courts have a dilemma as far
as the meaning of the various expressions are
concerned – actual, continuous, open, hostile
and exclusive possession.

30. Details that one has to present before the
court to claim adverse possession
• Precaution need
• Irrespective of the debatable aspects put forth at
various points of time, Adverse Possession is an
issue that needs to be well considered and kept in
mind by all landlords who decide to give their
property on rent or to caretakers.
• The law provides protection to landlords.
Owners need to be careful about defining the
time period for which the occupant can stay, in
order to safeguard their property rights. It is
best to seek proper legal advice for the same

31. Details that one has to present before the
court to claim adverse possession

32. Steps To Get Back Your Property From
Illegal Possession
• Generally, illegal possession is carried out in 2
ways
• 1. When some random people falsify documents
and illegally occupy the property by coercion (use
of force).
• This illegal practice is common among some
since they practice this as their profession.
Regrettably, sometimes certain local
authorities also assist these people in such
unlawful practices.

33. Steps To Get Back Your Property From
Illegal Possession

34. Steps To Get Back Your Property From
Illegal Possession
• 2. Such an illegal possession can also happen when a tenant
refuses to vacate your premises. The most common defense
used by tenants is that of adverse possession.
• It is advised to make a proper rent agreement before renting
out your accommodation as well as acquire strong measures to
avoid getting involved in such situations.
• These situations mostly arise when properties that are
illegally occupied are left unsupervised by the caretakers,
tenants with unspecified status, or properties that have
been lying abandoned for years which directly makes them
an easy target for such notorious people.

35. Steps To Get Back Your Property From Illegal
Possession

36. Steps To Get Back Your Property From Illegal
Possession
• Adverse possession is when the rightful owner of
the property loses his rights of ownership
resulting from inaction on his part to get rid off a
trespasser/ occupant within a statutory time period
(12 years under Indian law) from his property.
After the completion of the statutory limitation
period for removing the trespasser/ occupant,
the rightful owner is restricted from initiating
any legal proceeding to gain back the
possession on his property and thus, allows the
trespasser to acquire the title to that property
by adverse possession

37. Steps To Get Back Your Property From
Illegal Possession

38. Illegal possession, trespassing cases are
most common when it comes to NRIs.
• They don’t reside in these properties, don’t have
the possession of the property at all times.
They are unable to make frequent visits, so they
end up giving the possession/ control of the
property to friends, acquaintances, and relatives.
Apart from this, with time many of the
occupants, relatives, friends feel they own the
place since there is no one to monitor and
supervise the property.

39. Illegal possession, trespassing cases are most
common when it comes to NRIs.

40. Illegal possession, trespassing cases are most
common when it comes to NRIs.
• Oral and unregistered agreements with
tenants/ caretakers are quite common
resulting in illegal possession.
• Properties without caretakers and tenants
which are not frequently visited by the
owners themselves are a great catch for land
mafia to trespass and occupy illegally

41. Illegal possession, trespassing cases are most
common when it comes to NRIs.

42. The real meaning of possession
• Possession means having the actual control over an
object/ thing, whether you own it or not. However, even
the person with the possession of the thing enjoys certain
legal protection against third parties even if he is not the
owner. This protection is given against any unlawful act
of violence against the person in possession.
The rights of persons with possession come from the fact
that the owner – NRIs, in this case- haven’t looked at these
properties for years and they continue enjoying rights.
Moreover, as mentioned earlier too, trespassers can forge
documents making it difficult for them to be evicted.

43. The real meaning of possession

44. How can you avoid your property from
getting illegally occupied?
• The best way to regain control and restore
possession of your property legally is going to
the court and asking for justice.
• Civil court remedies are easily available where
personal appearances required in the court can be
controlled by competent and chosen lawyers.
Legal remedies are available under the law to
restore the possession of properties and even
protect any third party trespassing or illegal
interfering with the peaceful possession.

45. How can you avoid your property from
getting illegally occupied?

46. 1. Prevention is better than cure
• You should create true caretaker contracts
and prepare well-defined tenancy contracts.
In simple terms, you must always define the
status and/ or duty of the occupant having
the possession of the property.
• You must not let any person retain the
possession of your house for a long time. You
should keep changing occupancy in the
property to not let it get illegally dispossessed

47. 1. Prevention is better than cure

48. 2. Actual legal measures
• Under Section- 5 of the Specific Relief Act, a
person who is dispossessed of his property can
get possession by title.

49. 2. Actual legal measures
• Under Section- 6 of the Specific Relief Act, a
person dispossessed may recover his right
merely by proving previous possession and
subsequent illegal dispossession.

50. Section- 145 of the Criminal Procedure
Code
• Section- 145 of the Criminal Procedure
Code lays down procedure where dispute
concerning land or water is likely to cause a
breach of peace.
A person who realizes trespassing or illegal
dispossession can file a written complaint with
the police against it.

51. Section- 145 of the Criminal Procedure
Code

52. Section- 145 of the Criminal Procedure
Code
• A written complaint can be sent to the
Superintendent of Police (S.P) of the district
where the property is situated by way of
registered post or by visiting the concerned
police station.

53. Section- 145 of the Criminal Procedure
Code
• In case the Superintendent of Police fails to
acknowledge the complaint, a personal
complaint in the concerned court can be filed
through an advocate and the case can then be
followed through a Special Power of
Attorney when the owner cannot make his
presence in the court.

54. Special Power of Attorney

55. Terminology
• Claim club (Bhumi Putra)
• Claim clubs, also called actual settlers'
associations or squatters' clubs, were a
nineteenth-century phenomenon in the American
West. Usually operating within a confined local
jurisdiction, these pseudo-governmental entities
sought to regulate land sales in places where there
was little or no legal apparatus to deal with land-
related quarrels of any size Some claim clubs
sought to protect squatters, while others defended
early land owners.

56. Claim Club (Bhumi Putra)

57. Claim club (Bhumi Putra)
• Claim clubs were essentially designed to "do
what politicians refused to do: make land
available to needy settlers.
• Their general purpose was to protect the first
settlers to arrive on unclaimed lands,
particularly in their rights to speculate and
cultivate.

58. Claim club (Bhumi Putra)

59. Squatting
• Squatting
• Squatting is the action of occupying an
abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a
building, usually residential, that the squatter
does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful
permission to use.

60. Squatting

61. Cybersquatting
• Cybersquatting
• Cybersquatting (also known as domain
squatting), according to the United States
federal law known as the Anticybersquatting
Consumer Protection Act, is registering,
trafficking in, or using an Internet domain
name with bad faith intent to profit from the
goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone
else

62. Cybersquatting

63. Loan Surrogacy
• Loan Surrogacy-What is it and How it works?
• Almost all the times we find lenders doing loan
on basis of your actual net income, which is the
safest option. However, keeping businessmen in
India into consideration and that the tax
bracket is quite high in our country, banks
have developed products which enables a
businessman or a professional to borrow for
his Home buying or getting a Loan against
property(LAP) without having much to show
in papers.

64. Property caretaker
• Property caretaker
• A property caretaker is a person, group, or
organization that cares for real estate for trade
or financial compensation, and sometimes as a
barter for rent-free living accommodations

65. Scavengers
• Scavengers
• Scavengers are animals that feed on dead or
injured animals.

66. Ghosting (Identity Theft)
• Ghosting (Identity theft)
• Ghosting is a form of identity theft in which someone
steals the identity, and sometimes even the role within
society, of a specific dead person (the "ghost") who is
not widely known to be deceased.
• Usually, the person who steals this identity (the
"ghoster") is roughly the same age that the ghost would
have been if still alive, so that any documents citing the
birthdate of the ghost will not be conspicuously
incorrect if appropriated by the thief now claiming to
be that person.

67. Ghosting (Identity Theft)

68. Rapture
• The rapture is an term used by certain
Christians, referring to a purported end time
event when all Christian believers – living and
dead – will rise into the sky and join Christ

69. What can we do in India if some Land Mafia
has occupied our plot?
• A police complaint should be made as soon as
possible. Under the Indian Penal Code, 1860,
any unlawful entry into property in the
possession of another with an intent to insult,
annoy or intimidate another person is a
criminal offence (Section 441).
• You are legally in possession even though
you may not physically occupy the plot.

70. What can we do in India if some Land
Mafia has occupied our plot?

71. What can we do in India if some Land
Mafia has occupied our plot?
• At the same time, a suit should be filed against
the persons involved against such trespass.
This will not easily yield a remedy but is
important for the maintenance of your legal
rights.
• In such suit, you should also ask for a declaration
that the property belongs to your father and not
any other person. The reason for this suggestion is
that the land mafia then cannot legally transfer the
property without your rights being considered

72. What can we do in India if some Land
Mafia has occupied our plot?

73. What can we do in India if some Land
Mafia has occupied our plot?
• Although under the law, you have the right to
use reasonable force to eject the trespassers, I
don't think while dealing with the land mafia
this is a feasible or realistic option.

74. Illegal Transfer of Property
• How Illegal Transfers occur?
• Illegal transfers can occur in three primary ways.
• Forged wills
• Very first, if you have forging or fabrication of paperwork
like Wills – that is, making fake Will documents. This could
be done by someone to deprive the other shareholders of
their due share. This is amongst the most common methods,
and here the defaulter takes advantage of the absence of the
other and supplies fake ownership to take control. For any
mutation to happen, anyone proprietor has to notify about
the death of the previous owner. From time to time, one
owner decides not to supply the details like these for his
selfish motive.

75. Forged wills

76. Impersonation
• Impersonation
• Second, impersonation is probably the regular
techniques used too. In such instances, one party
impersonates being a shareholder and makes
himself in court for the same. Many of them are
profitable too.
• They find a way to go and stake a claim on
which belongs to somebody else. As a result, a
thorough and proactive method needs to be
combined with all owners to avoid these
fraudulent practices.

77. Impersonation

78. Improper use of power of attorney
• Improper use of power of attorney
• The third way is the misuse of the Power Of Attorney
(POA) documents. In many situations, people turn out
offering general, low-restrictive POAs to their friends or
relatives. In many scenarios, individuals misrepresent, and
there is a betrayal by even family members or close
relatives, who give evidence of complete distrust and obtain
properties transferred in their names.
• It is therefore advised that utmost care needs to be
undertaken while giving a POA to anybody. Do not possibly
give any additional power or perhaps you stand the risk of
getting them misused by vested interests.

79. Improper use of power of attorney

80. Improper use of power of attorney
• The first two cases – false impersonation and
documentation – can be challenged in courts if
filed within the limitation period; the limitation
period is being three years of the date of
knowledge of the said illegal transfer of property.
These two circumstances can invoke each
criminal and civil lawsuit. However, in the case of
improper misuse of POA, please be warned that
hundreds of people have been dispossessed of
their properties because of misuse of Power of
Attorney.

81. How to safeguard your property
from illegal transfer?
• How to safeguard your property from illegal
transfer?
• Ensure that you have all your documentation/records in
place to prove your legal rights over the property.
• To establish legal right on the property the owner or a
person claiming possession must have documents such
as the jamabandis, title deeds, mutation/intkal, copy of
the Will where the property has been inherited by way
of a Will, original purchase agreement/sale deed, water
bills, electricity bills and telephone bills etc.

82. How to safeguard your property
from illegal transfer?

83. How to safeguard your property
from illegal transfer?
• After acquiring a property (by means of
purchase, gift, relinquishment, will etc.
• You MUST get all the revenue records
mutations done in your name. If the property is
inherited or has come down by way of Will
and the title deed is not in your custody either
because the same is untraceable or lost, it is
advisable to lodge a police complaint
immediately.

84. How to safeguard your property from
illegal transfer?
• Insert a public notice in at least two local newspapers
about the ownership rights over that particular property
and obtain ‘certified copies’ of all documents from the
concerned registering authority or revenue offices.
Secondly, pay all outgoings and liabilities like
municipality/panchayath/property tax to the authorities
in time.
• Be in touch with your neighbours so that they may
be able to notify you in case they notice any activity.
You must also keep checking over the property,
through relatives and friends, at periodic intervals
so that people know that the property is not an easy
target.

85. How to safeguard your property from
illegal transfer?

86. How to safeguard your property from
illegal transfer?
• If you have to give a Power of Attorney
(PoA) to a loved one or relative, make sure
it is a specific one.
• Fence the property and put up a board on
it. This sends out a strong message to
possible property encroachers that you are
better off leaving the property alone.

87. How to safeguard your property
from illegal transfer?

88. How To File A Complaint In Consumer
Court?
• How To File A Complaint In Consumer
Court Against Real Estate
• https://www.proptiger.com/guide/post/how-to-
file-a-complaint-in-consumer-court

89. Real Estate Regulatory Authority and
Appellate Tribunal – Guj-RERA
• Real Estate Regulatory Authority and
Appellate Tribunal – Guj-RERA
• https://gujrera.gujarat.gov.in/home

90. The Serious Fraud Investigation
Office
• SFIO
• https://sfio.nic.in/

91. Adverse possession | Legal Helpline
India
• Adverse possession | Legal Helpline India
• http://www.legalhelplineindia.com/adverse-
possession/

92. Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)
• http://cbi.gov.in/

93. References
• Adverse Possession
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverse_possession
• Adverse Possession: When Trespassers Become Property Owners
• https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/adverse-possession-trespassers-become-owners-46934.html
• Ghost-buster Gaurav Tiwari found dead under mysterious circumstances
• https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/gaurav-tiwari-paranormal-investigator-foung-dead-
mysteriously-328664-2016-07-11
• Nanu Ki Jaanu
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanu_Ki_Jaanu
• SC Ruling To Make Adverse Possession Tougher
• https://www.proptiger.com/guide/post/sc-puts-in-caveat-to-check-adverse-possession-by-squatters
• When is a Tenant an Illegal Occupant?
• https://madeleyn.co.za/2015/09/29/when-is-a-tenant-an-illegal-occupant/
• What is Adverse Possession? - Definition, Law & Cases
• https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-adverse-possession-definition-law-cases.html
•

94. Is their any link between real properties adverse
possession crimes and TV Serials , bollywood
movies ?

95. When the Rapture occurs, will we leave our clothes
behind us in a heap where we were when Christ
caught us up to meet Him in the clouds?

96. Thanks…