There are three modes of transfer of property –
A. By operation of law
B. By order of court
C. By act of parties
Transfer by operation of law means transfer made on the basis of some statute in this type of transfer there is no need of consent of parties. It is effected automatically by law such as family law, succession law, insolveny law, law of forfeitur etc.
Transfer by order of Court is regulated by the code of civil procedure, through passing of decree,order and its execution.
Transfer by act of parties is made by the free consent and free will of the parties. Sale, mortgage, gift are the example of transfer of property by act of parties.
As for transfer of movable property there has been sufficient law. For example on the point of sale sale of goods act 1930 ( earlier it was in The Indian Contract Act 1872 Sections 76 to 123) for bailment it is also in The Indian Contract Act 1872, for transfer of movable property by operation of law it is Indian succession act.
But for the exchange of movable property there was no law, for gift of movable property there was no law before 1882,
Similarly for transfer of immovable property by act of parties there was no law before 1882 such transfer were governed by the equity justice and good concience. For example sale of a house or mortgage of house there was no law it was dealt by equity justice and good concience.
The result of this was the variance in point of law because of the different opinions of judges as per realistic school “law is what judges declared” meant to say that equity justice and good concience created contradiction in law of property.
The preamble of the transfer of property of act is as follow
” Where as it is expediente to define and amend certain parts of the law relating to transfer of property by act of parties it is enacted as follow.”
The main object of transfer of property was to regulate the transfer of immovable property but there was certain transactions of movable property upon which there was no law, so there was need of law on this point.Transfer of Property Act deals with both type of properties movable as well as immovable.
So there was required a law which governs the transactions of act of parties and therefore to complete the law on this point The Transfer of Property Act 1882 was enacted.