ELUMALAI @ VENKATESAN & ANR Vs M. KAMALA AND ORS. & ETC [2023] 1 S.C.R. 261

Release Deed – Effect of – Spes Successionis – Estoppel – Warding off, of estoppel by heirs of the person whose conduct created the estoppel – Section 6(a) of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882
declares that a chance of an heir apparent succeeding to an estate,
the chance of a relation obtaining a legacy on the death of a kinsman
or other mere possibility of a like nature cannot be transferred.
A living man has no heir. Equally, a person who may become the
heir and entitled to succeed under the law upon the death of his
relative would not have any right until succession to the estate is
opened up. When ‘S’, the father of ‘C’ was alive, ‘C’ had at best
a spes successonis. Unlike a co-parcener who acquires right to
joint family property by his mere birth, in regard to the separate
property of the Hindu, no such right exists. Thus, there can be
no doubt that the Release Deed may not by itself have the effect
of a transfer of the rights of ‘C’ in favour of either his father or
the minor son of his father from the second marriage.
[Para 10]

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