Assignment 3

MIN IENT When land is used for long, without objection (12) P R E S C R I P T I O N
IT CO P
Y M R
I

The right to use someone else's land (8) E A S E M E N T

SC A One who NEEDS another's land in order to use his own D O M I N E N T

SS R SE (8)
V M

When land is used, with permission (5) G R A N T

TIO DO NITY What an Easement IS (9) P R E V I L A G E

N GE RI
P

When land is otherwise, impossible to use (9) N E C E S S I T Y

MU SE One whose land is NEEDED for another's to be used (8) S E R V I E N T

N AN CE EN
T T

When land is used by the General Public (9) C O M M U N I T Y

EA
VIL N G PR
E E R E
EASEMENT
a. The description of Easements in the Indian Easement act in 1882 is – ‘Easement is a right under which the owner or the occupier of certain land
possesses, as such, for the beneficial enjoyment of that land, to do or continue to do something, or to prevent and continue to prevent
something being done, in or upon, or in respect of certain other land not his own’.
b. An easement is the privilege you have to use or continue to peacefully use or to prevent something in land that is not in your possession.
c. It is an arrangement between the two parties, where the use of the property is clearly defined and the owner is given the termination of
easement.
d. This easement is important because in some cases there may have been land which has been used for a function (a person may have been in
possession) for a long time which is then bought by another person but to make sure this doesn’t affect him, he needs the easement, to
continue his right to use the land.

DOMINANT HERITAGE
The person who is using the privilege as a need is called dominant. The person who does not own the property but he is exercising his easement
right is known as the dominant tenement, whereas the property owner is known as the dominant owner because he has control over how the land is
used even when he is not in possession of it.

SERVIENT HERITAGE
The person whose land is being used as a need is called servient. The original owner of the property who is unable to raise objections to the use of
his property by the other occupant is known as servient tenement, and such an owner is known as servient owner since he is the one who is liable to
follow the dominant owner's needs.

Eg.

B needs part of A’s property to access his site. B has enjoyed the easement for over 20 years. In this situation, B is the dominant heritage and A is the
servient heritage.
Easement by PRESCRIPTION

A person may acquire property or certain rights over a property by showing that he or she has been in possession of the property or peacefully
enjoying rights for a long period of time. Therefore if a person after long and continuous possession or use over certain rights over immovable property
is required to prove his title and continue enjoying his rights by virtue that it has become a habit over-time. Hence law recognizes an easement by
prescription.

Section 15 of The Indian Easement Act 1882 states that in order to acquire a prescriptive right of easement in respect of access and use of light or air
to and for any building or support from another person’s land or a right of way or any other easement it must have been peacefully and openly enjoyed
as an easement as of right without interruption for twenty years.

Eg. Person A has used peacefully and openly the land owned by B for agriculture for the past 25 years. B objects after the 20 year period that it is his
land and he does not permit A to continue doing so. The lawsuit is ruled in favour of A as he has not been objected for the period of 20yrs as long as
he only practices agriculture on the land of B.

Easement by GRANT

An easement by grant is an easement that the owner of the servient heritage grants to the owner of the dominant heritage in exchange for money or
by mutual agreement. This type of express easement is usually bargained for and purchased.

Eg. Neighbour A may want to build a basketball court off their driveway, but not have enough room on their lot to do so because their driveway already
butts up against the property line. This individual may offer to pay her neighbour B 50,000 rs. for his consent to grant an easement to her to build
the basketball court off her driveway that extends onto his land by 10 feet.

Easement by NECESSITY

This consists of the circumstances where the owner cannot use his property without exercising the right of easement over the servient heritage.
Thus, absolute necessity is the factor and the convenience.

Eg. When a joint property is partitioned amongst various co owners and if the common utilities like sump tank of the property is essential for the
enjoyment of the other co-owner then latter shall be entitled to easement.

Easement by COMMUNITY

Eg. If a company A owns land that has been used as a park by the neighbourhood community for a long time peacefully without interruption, then
the land is considered to belong to the community after 20 years by easement by the community as long as they continue to use it as a park.

PRIVILEGE

An easement is the privilege you have to use or continue to peacefully use or to prevent something in land that is not in your possession.

The privilege given to the dominant heritage over the servient heritage by virtue of time.

VAISHNAVI S
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