Property, Real Estate and Legal Validity of Relinquishment Deeds

Property, Real Estate and Legal Validity of Relinquishment Deeds

It has been held in Srichand Badlani v. GNCTD [2013] GCtR 6422 (Delhi) that "it is a settled legal proposition that one of the co-owners can relinquish his share in a co-owned property in favour of one or more of the co-owners. The document executed by him in this regard would continue to be a Relinquishment Deed irrespective of whether the relinquishment is in favour of one or all the remaining co-owners of the property." 

In this case, A was owner of property. After death of A, property was mutated in favour of B, C and D who were sons, grandsons of A. Later on, legal heirs of C relinquished their shares in favour of B. When it was presented for registration, it was treated as gift deed. 

It was also held that "there is no basis in law for the proposition that if the Relinquishment Deed is executed in favour of one of the co-owners, it would be treated as a Gift Deed. The law of stamp duty as applicable in Delhi treats Relinquishment Deed and Gift Deed as separate documents, chargeable with different stamp duties. It is not necessary that in order to qualify as a Relinquishment Deed the document must purport to relinquish the share of the relinquisher in favour of all the remaining coowners of the property. Even if the relinquishment is in favour of one of the co-owners it would qualify as a Relinquishment Deed."

"It is immaterial as to what the relationship between the coowners of the property. So long as relinquishment is in favour of one of the co-owners, the relationship between the relinquisher and the relinquishee is wholly immaterial and of no consequence at all. The law permits one of the co-owners even if they are not related to each other to relinquish his share in favour of other co-owner(s)."