INTRODUCTION
The phrase ‘benefits to arise out of land’ means profits derived from land without having
any substantial control over the land. Benefit arising out of land is also known as ‘profit
a prendre’.
Section 2(6) of Registration Act says that: “immovable property includes land, buildings,
hereditary allowances, rights to ways, lights, ferries, fisheries or any other benefit to arise
out of land, and things attached to the earth or permanently fastened to anything which is
attached to the earth, but not standing timber, growing crops nor grass.”
Section 3(26) of General Clauses Act says that: “Immovable property shall include land,
benefits to arise out of land, and things attached to the earth, or permanently fastened to
anything attached to the earth.”
The courts have recognized a very limited number of ‘profits a prendre’. There is a
numerus clauses of property entitlements and ‘profits’ are one of the classes of this closed
list of proprietary entitlements. Courts are reluctant to include more rights in this list
because property rights are very durable and creation of a number of entitlements as
profits would make it difficult for the subsequent transferees to keep a check on the prior
property entitlements.
The hypothesis of my project is that in essence each and every right is a benefit arising
out of land since there cannot be any activity in this world that can be done in isolation of
land. Therefore, it is quite unreasonable to make a class of entitlement called ‘benefits are
arising out of land’ because in this way each and every activity would have to be
recognized as a proprietary right. A principle/ doctrine that classifies a certain right as
proprietary just because it is already recognized by court and does not recognize a similar
right as proprietary is, according to me, arbitrary and unreasonable.
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