Manifestations of a ‘Gift’ and its legal implications!

Image via Wikipedia :Sansad Bavan, the Indian parliament

It begins on a very small scale, when we offer a chocolate or an ice-cream to our child, just to encourage it to finish his or her home work or to achieve a desired result or complete some other assigned tasks. When the child is grown up, it also grows in size, when we present something unique on a large scale and costly in value, like a two wheeler, a computer, or a car or some costly dresses or some exotic presents etc. What we refer here is called the ‘Gift’ in the common parlance.

What is a Gift?

Then, we may define ‘Gift’ as a thing or an object that we present to a person without getting or expecting any consideration from the person to whom we give away the ‘Gift’. It connotes our love and affection or devotion towards the person to whom we make our ‘Gift’ besides explaining our attempts to motivate the concerned person towards a desired goal or result.

Manifestations of a Gift:-

During the marriage of our daughters, we used to present them willingly and on our own volition, both movable and immovable properties, which are commonly known as ‘Sridhana’ in a Hindu marriage. However, when the bridegroom forcefully exacted or extracted them from the bride, the ‘Gifts’ obtained forcefully from her get a different name known as ‘dowry’ and the bridegroom is liable for punishment under law.

Thus ‘Gift’ is given away by us mostly to our kith and kin and only in rare cases to a third party, as we gift something to our faithful servants on the eve of a festival or during a marriage in recognition of the service rendered by them. Sometimes, we donate liberally for a common cause during a flood or a fire accident, which is known as donation and our munificence or extreme generous gesture is lavishly appreciated.

Though we mostly make our ‘Gifts’ only in favor of living persons , sometimes, we may dedicate our presents to the God or Goddess in the name of ‘oblations’ and even going a step further, we even dedicate away our properties both movable and immovable in favor of a deity.

However, a ‘Gift’ is vitiated and has a different nomenclature called ‘bribe’ and the act itself is called as bribery, when a person gives something to another person, expecting from him or her something in return, immorally, illegally or dishonestly.

Thus ‘Gift’ is a recognized form of presentation and is free from any complaint when it is made between relatives, out of love and affection as long as it is done out of free will and without involving any force. But when the ‘Gift’ is made out of force and coercion, and expecting something in return, it has a different name and proportion.

Legal implications of a ‘Gift’:-

To complete the act of ‘Gift’, a donor and donee are must, while the donor is a person who makes a ‘Gift’, and the ‘donee’ is a person who receives the ‘Gift’.To complete the act of ‘Gift’, both a donor and donee must be present; the donee must accept the ‘Gift’ given by the donor; then only the gift is valid. A person cannot make a gift to a person without his knowledge and to a person who is far away from the donor. Only on acceptance by the donee, the gift comes into effect.

A Gift to be valid should necessarily be registered by paying necessary stamp duties. Once a ‘Gift’ is made by the donor to the donee, it can never be revoked.In other words, a thing of ‘Gift’is equivalent to alms that was thrown into the begging bowl of a beggar.

However, a donor can cancel the ‘Gift’ deed through a court of law provided that it was vitiated by fraud.

Recently, in the Senior Citizen’s Welfare Act, 2007, enacted by the Indian Parliament, a provision has been made to the effect, that when a donor who happens to be a senior citizen having made his ‘Gift’ in favor any of his or her relative, can get it revoked, if the donee neglects to look after him and the donor has no other means to eke out his or her livelihood.

The act of forcefully obtaining a gift from the bride by the bridegroom is called as ‘dowry’ and it is punishable under the provisions of the Dowry Prohibition Act.

Gift is known as ‘Hibba’in the Muslim law. A Muslim, though entitled to make ‘Gifts’to his or her relatives, the ‘Gifts’ should not exceed 1/3 value of the total properties in his or her possession.

Therefore, though the act of making a ‘Gift’ in favor of ones kith and kin is laudable, the donor should always take adequate precautions before making a ‘Gift’ in favor of a donee because once made, the ‘Gift’ is irrevocable and the donor may invite unnecessary legal troubles if he or she makes a ‘Gift’ rather hastily, without taking adequate precautions.Therefore, it is always advice able, before executing a ‘Gift’ deed in favor of a person, the donor should always verify his or her credentials, whether he or she is willing to accept the ‘Gift’, whether he or she resides in the place where the donor also resides etc.

Once a ‘Gift ‘ deed is properly executed by a donor in favor of a donee, the donor can be damn sure and peaceful that his or her gifted property goes only to a proper person and the property gifted away will be taken care of even after his death and it will not get simply frittered away, but properly utilized.