Legal maxim

The maxim of Alienatio Rei Praefertur Juri Accrescendi is a Latin phrase which literally means “alienation is favoured by the law rather than accumulation”. This simply means that in cases of disputed, the transfer of property is rather favoured than not since the transferring of property is economically beneficial. This maxim deals with Section 10 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882, which talks about the conditions revolving around the alienation of property. According to this Section, all the conditions which restrain absolute transfer in property shall be deemed void, and the transferee who is now the owner of the property has all the rights to transfer it. These conditions could be any which was put up by the original transferor. Any restrain in the alienation of property is a restriction against the essential feature of ownership rights and has to be avoided. However, it must be noted here that this maxim is only applicable when there is an absolute restraint in property and not in the cases of partial restrains.

Muhammad Raza v. Abhas Bandi Bibi

In this case, the transferor had restricted the transfer of property outside the family. The Privy Council held that such restriction was only partial and thus, it was valid under the maxim of Alienatio Rei Praefertur Juri Accrescendi.

Renand v. Tourangeaon

In this case, the condition to restrain the property restricted the transferee from further transferring the property to another for a period of twenty years. The Court held that such a condition was absolute and a restriction on alienation to further parties can only be partial for a period of three years and not more than that.