Transfer of Property Act. Acceptance of gift can be proved & inferred by implied conduct of the donee and the revenue entries.

Daulat Singh by lrs. vs The State of Rajastan and others. Civil Appeal 5650/2010 decided on 8 December 2020.

Judgment Link: https://main.sci.gov.in/supremecourt/2009/20316/20316_2009_32_1501_25002_Judgement_08-Dec-2020.pdf

Relevant paras. 24. At the outset, it ought to be noted that Section 122 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 neither defines acceptance, nor does it prescribe any particular mode for accepting the gift.

25. The word acceptance is defined as “is the receipt of a
thing offered by another with an intention to retain it, as
acceptance of a gift.” (See Ramanatha P. Aiyar: The Law
Lexicon, 2nd Edn., page 19).

26. The aforesaid fact can be ascertained from the
surrounding circumstances such as taking into possession
the property by the donee or by being in the possession of the
gift deed itself. The only requirement stipulated here is that,
the acceptance of the gift must be effectuated within the
lifetime of the donor itself.

27. Hence, being an act of receiving willingly, acceptance can
be inferred by the implied conduct of the donee.

29. In order to show acceptance, the counsel for the
appellant drew our attention to the mutation records. The
Mutation entry in the Revenue Record of Gram Sedriya,
District Pali dated 28.10.1968 clearly reflects that half portion
of appellant’s land was bestowed as a gift by the appellant to
his son through a registered instrument of gift dated
19.12.1963.

30. Furthermore, the statement dated 31.08.1984, rendered
by the appellant­donor before the Court of Additional District Magistrate indicates that the donee was already a major at the
time of the execution of the gift deed. He further stated that
after execution of the gift deed the donee started cultivating on
the same.

32. Therefore, the abovementioned circumstances clearly
indicate that there was an acceptance of the gift by the donee
during the lifetime of the donor. Not only the gift deed in itself
contained recitals about transfer of possession, but also the
mutation records and the statements of the both the donor
and donee indicate that, there has been an acceptance of the
gift by conduct.

Discussion on Gift: