Lawful Possession - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition lawful-possession

Definition :

Lawful possession, is not litigious possession and must have some foundation in a legal right to possess the property which cannot be equated with a temporary right to enforce recovery of the property in case a person is wrongfully or forcibly dispossessed from it. Juridical possession is possession protected by law against wrongful dispossession but cannot perse always be equated with lawful possession, M.C. Chockalingam v. V. Manickavasagam, AIR 1974 SC 104 (110): (1974) 1 SCC 48: (1974) 2 SCR 143. [T.N. Cinemas (Regulation) Rules, 1957, R. 13]

The term 'lawful possession' as defined in the Law Lexicon, Reprint Edition, 1987, by P. Ramanatha Aiyar at p. 712 as: The term 'lawful possession' is not convertible with 'innocent possession' in legal terminology. Intent does not enter into whether an act is unlawful or tortuous, though it does as to whether it is innocent or criminal. To establish 'lawful possession'.

It is absolutely necessary for a party to prove with the documents which came into existence by lawful transactions and that aspect is purely outside the scope of deciding 'lawful ownership' of a person when he claims a right for perpetual injunction on the basis of 'lawful possession', N. Hanumantha Rao v. Corporation of City of Bangalore, AIR 1996 Kant 296.