HC Issues Norms to Regulate Sale of SC/ST Property

In a bid to ensure protection of property rights of marginalized communities, the Orissa High Court has issued comprehensive legal guidelines to regulate the sale or transfer of undivided property by members of Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) communities.

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Justice SK Panigrahi, in a recent order, emphasized that no individual member of the SC/ST community can unilaterally alienate any specific portion of a joint family property unless there has been a formal and legal partition. This must be effected either through a registered agreement or a decree by a competent civil court.

In the absence of such a partition, any proposed sale or transfer by a coparcener (equal shareholder) must be preceded by the informed and written consent of all other SC/ST coparceners, the order issued on July 18 and uploaded on Wednesday outlines, placing the onus on the transferer to prove that all interested parties have consented to the transaction.