Skip to main content

Time cannot be presumed to be essence of the contract in sale of immovable properties

Cause Title : Gaddipati Divija & Anr. Vs Pathuri Samrajyam & Ors., Civil Appeal No. 4206-4207 Of 2011, Supreme Court Of India

Date of Judgment/Order : 18/4/23

Corum : Krishna Murari; J., Sanjay Karol; J.

Citied: 

  1. N.P. Thirugnanam vs Dr. R. Jagan Mohan Rao & Ors, 1995 (5) SCC 115
  2. U.N. Krishnamurthy (since deceased) Thr. Lrs. vs A.M. Krishnamurthy, 2022 SCC OnLine SC 840
  3. Nanjappan vs Ramasamy & Anr., (2015) 14 SCC 341
  4. Jaswinder Kaur vs Gurmeet Singh & Ors, 2017 (12) SCC 810
  5. Katta Sujatha Reddy v. Siddamsetty Infra Projects (P) Ltd., 2022 LiveLaw (SC) 712
  6. Ardeshir H. Mama vs Flora Sassoon, AIR 1928 PC 208
  7. Syed Dastagir vs T.R. Gopalakrishna Setty, (1999) 6 SCC 337
  8.  Aniglase Yohannan vs Ramlatha & Ors., (2005) 7 SCC 534

Background

One G. Venugopala Rao had contracted with the Respondent for sale of some immovable property against which advance was paid by the Respondent. When after 4 months, Mr. Rao demanded the remaining money, the Respondent refused alleging failure on part of Mr. Rao to demarcate the property and also not disclosing that there is an encumbrance on the property. While several litigations were going on, Mr. Rao passed away. The Respondent filed a suit against his heirs claiming specific performance of the contract which was partially rejected by the Trial court. On appeal, the High Court allowed the appeal and decreeing the suit for specific performance. Hence this appeal filed by the heirs alleging that the Respondents were not ready and willing to perform her part of the contract.  

Judgment

The Supreme Court however agreeing with the High Court held that :-
  • As stipulated under Section 16 of the Specific Relief Act, 1963 (before 2018 amendment), the Respondents had averred before the High Court that she was always ready and willing to perform their part of contract with regard to the payment of the balance sale consideration and this evidence was not challenged by the Appellants. When a fact has been stated by witness and the same has not been challenged, it can be said that such a fact is admitted.
  • Mere stipulation of time would not make time the essence of the contract.
  • In case of sale of immovable property normally the time may not be essence of the contract.

Comments

Post a Comment

Most viewed this month

Inherited property of childless hindu woman devolve onto heirs of her parents

In Tarabai Dagdu Nitanware vs Narayan Keru Nitanware, quashing an order passed by a joint civil judge junior division, Pune, the Bombay High Court has held that under Section 15 of the Hindu Succession Act, any property inherited by a female Hindu from her father or mother, will devolve upon the heirs of her father/mother, if she dies without any children of her own, and not upon her husband. Justice Shalini Phansalkar Joshi was hearing a writ petition filed by relatives of one Sundarabai, who died issueless more than 45 years ago on June 18, 1962. Article referred:http://www.livelaw.in/property-inherited-female-hindu-parents-shall-devolve-upon-heirs-father-not-husband-dies-childless-bombay-hc-read-judgment/
Post a Comment
Read more

'Seize assets to pay damages to accident victim'

Her story might be an inspiration for the physically challenged but justice has remained elusive for her. In 2008, a bus accident left research engineer S Thenmozhi, 30, paraplegic. In April 2013, the motor accident claims tribunal directed the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) to provide her a compensation of 57.9 lakh. However, TNSTC refused to budge and on Tuesday a city court ordered attaching of movable assets of the transport corporation. Thenmozhi was employed in C-DOT, a telecom technology development centre in Bangalore. On July 21, 2008, she was coming to Chennai in a private bus. Around 2am, the bus had a flat tyre and the driver parked it on the left side of the road near Pallikonda in Vellore district on the Bangalore-Chennai highway. While the tyre was being changed, a TNSTC bus of Dharmapuri division hit the stationary bus. The rear part of the bus was smashed and passengers were injured. Thenmozhi who had a seat at the back of the bus suffered...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mumbai ITAT rules income of offshore discretionary trust is subject to tax in India

The Mumbai Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has recently determined the following issue in the affirmative in the case of Manoj Dhupelia: Should the income of an offshore discretionary trust be subject to tax in India, if no distributions have been made to beneficiaries in India? The question arose from appeals filed by individual beneficiaries in relation to a Lichtenstein-based trust, the Ambrunova Trust and Merlyn Management SA (the Trust) with the ITAT. It is important to note that the individuals in this case were amongst those first identified by the Government of India (GOI) as holding undeclared bank accounts in Lichtenstein. The ITAT ruling raises the following issues: Taxation of Trust Corpus: ITAT classified the corpus of the trust as "undisclosed income" and declared it taxable in the hands of the beneficiaries. Taxation of Undistributed Income: ITAT refused to draw a distinction between the corpus and undistributed income from the trust and declared i...
Post a Comment
Read more