Sections 65 to 67 CPC: Purchaser's Title, Repealed Section 66 and Land Sale Rules

Sections 65 to 67 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 form part of the provisions dealing with sale in execution proceedings. Section 65 determines when title is deemed to vest in the purchaser after an execution sale becomes absolute. Section 66 has been repealed. Section 67 empowers the State Government to make rules for specified sales of interests in land in execution of decrees for payment of money.

Current central law: Section 65 and Section 67 remain in the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. The official central text should be read along with applicable State amendments, notifications and rules for the jurisdiction concerned.

Section 65 CPC - Purchaser's Title

Where immovable property is sold in execution of a decree and such sale has become absolute, the property shall be deemed to have vested in the purchaser from the time when the property is sold and not from the time when the sale becomes absolute.

Meaning and effect of Section 65

  • The provision applies to immovable property sold in execution of a decree.
  • The execution sale must become absolute.
  • Once the sale becomes absolute, the purchaser's title is deemed to relate back to the time when the property was sold.
  • The vesting is therefore not treated as beginning only on the later date when the sale becomes absolute.

Section 66 CPC - Repealed

Legal update: Section 66, formerly titled "Suit against purchaser not maintainable on ground of purchase being on behalf of plaintiff," was repealed by the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988 (Act 45 of 1988), section 7, with effect from 19 May 1988. It is therefore not reproduced as an operative CPC provision.

Section 67 CPC - State Government Rules for Sales of Land in Execution of Money Decrees

(1) The State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, make rules for any local area imposing conditions in respect of the sale of any class of interests in land in execution of decrees for the payment of money, where such interests are so uncertain or undetermined as, in the opinion of the State Government, to make it impossible to fix their value.

(2) When on the date on which this Code came into operation in any local area, any special rules as to sale of land in execution of decrees were in force therein, the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare such rules to be in force, or may by a like notification modify the same.

Every notification issued in the exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) shall set out the rules so continued or modified.

(3) Every rule made under this section shall be laid, as soon as may be after it is made, before the State Legislature.

Meaning and effect of Section 67

  • The rule-making power belongs to the State Government and is exercised through a notification in the Official Gazette.
  • The provision concerns specified interests in land sold in execution of decrees for payment of money.
  • Sub-section (1) addresses interests that are so uncertain or undetermined that, in the State Government's opinion, their value cannot be fixed.
  • Sub-section (2) deals with continuation or modification of certain pre-existing special rules in a local area.
  • Under sub-section (3), rules made under Section 67 must be laid before the State Legislature.

Official CPC Reference

The Government of India has migrated the India Code service to India Code. The central Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 may also be consulted in the official India Code CPC PDF.