Madras High Court: a registered, unconditional settlement deed cannot be cancelled unilaterally

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, in Chellammal v. Vivek, dismissed two connected first appeals filed under Section 96 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 against a trial court's decree in a property dispute from Madurai. A mother had executed a registered settlement deed in 2010 transferring property to a buyer, who later mortgaged it; years later, the mother executed a deed cancelling that settlement and resettled the same property on her daughter. Justice P. Vadamalai, following a consistent line of Madras High Court precedent and Section 126 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882, held that once a settlement or gift deed is registered, unconditional and irrevocable, and has been acted upon, the settlor has no power to revoke it unilaterally.

A deed purporting to cancel such a settlement, and its registration with the Sub-Registrar, is void and against public policy; a person aggrieved by a settlement deed must approach a civil court to have it set aside, not get a cancellation deed registered on their own. Since the mother had no title left to transfer after the first settlement, the daughter's later settlement deed and claims founded on it failed, and the trial court's decree was confirmed. As a High Court ruling, it binds courts in Tamil Nadu but is not a Supreme Court precedent.