Under Section 15 of the Indian Easements Act, 1882,

Solution

Section 15 of the Indian Easements Act, 1882 prescribes that to acquire a prescriptive easement over private land, the claimant must show peaceful, open, and uninterrupted enjoyment for 20 years as of right the Latin maxim nec vi, nec clam, nec precario (not by force, not secretly, not by permission) governs this requirement. For easements over government land, the prescriptive period is extended to 60 years. The concept of "interruption" is critically defined in Section 15 itself a mere physical act of obstruction by the servient owner does not automatically interrupt prescription; the interruption becomes legally effective only when the dominant owner submits to or acquiesces in it for a period of one year after having notice of the interruption and the identity of the person making it. This means a dominant owner can contest an obstruction and, as long as they do not submit for one year, the prescriptive period continues running unbroken. Crucially, Section 15 also clarifies that suspension of enjoyment by mutual contract between the dominant and servient owners does not amount to an interruption, preserving the prescriptive period during consensual suspensions.