In a legal sense, the term gift refers to a certain and voluntary transfer of property from one person to another. Under Islamic Laws, a gift or hiba is “transfer of property, made immediately, and without any exchange, by one person to another, and accepted by or on behalf of the latter. It is, the transfer of movable or immovable property with immediate effect and without consideration by one person called donor, to another person called donee. Hindu law defines gift as “the creation of another person’s proprietary right after the extinction of one’s own proprietary right in the subject matter of the gift. Gift has been defined in The Transfer of Property Act, 1882 under section 122 as, “ the transfer of certain existing movable or immovable property made voluntarily and without consideration, by one person, called the donor, to another, called the donee. In this paper, the author has made an attempt to draw a comparative study between the provisions of gift under Islamic Personal laws and the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 – the legal statute that deals with gifts amongst Hindus.
