NDLI: R Lakshmikantham Vs. Devaraji

Content Provider	Supreme Court of India
e-ISSN	30484839
Language	English
Access Restriction	NDLI
Subject Keyword	Contract time was the essence of the contract not ready and willing to perform the agreement Specific performance
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Law Judgement
Jurisdiction	India
Case(s) Referred	Referred Case 0
Case Type	Appeal
Court	Supreme Court of India
Disposal Nature	Appeal Allowed
Headnote	Contract – Specific performance of – Parties entered into an agreement to sell a suit property for Rs. 3.65 lakhs – Plaintiff paid Rs.5000/- on the date of signing the agreement – Thereafter, he further made the payment of Rs.60,000/- – Clause 3 of the agreement required that balance sale consideration to be paid within 3 months from the date of the agreement – Clause 5 of the agreement also required seller to obtain the original title documents of the suit property from the mortgagee after clearing mortgage – Plaintiff alleged that defendant was attempting to wriggle out of the agreement and he had sent three notices (two letters and a legal notice) to the defendant to comply with the terms of the agreement – Trial Court ordered specific performance – First appeal was dismissed – In second appeal, High Court reversed the concurrent judgments of the Courts below and held that time was the essence of the contract and letters sent by the plaintiffs were not proved – On appeal, held: High Court went wrong on number of counts – First, to hold that time was essence in the agreement was wholly incorrect – Clause 3 of the agreement to sell has to be read along with clauses 5 and 8, which clearly show that in the nature of reciprocal promises, the promise made by the seller in clause 5 has to be performed first, viz., that the title documents have to be obtained from the mortgagee after the mortgage is cleared – Secondly, both letters were addressed to the defendant on the address on which he later received/acknowledged the legal notice – Further, High Court erred in holding plaintiff was not ready and willing to perform the agreement – Therefore, judgment of the High Court set aside and that of the Courts below restored.
Judge	Hon'ble Mr. Justice R.F. Nariman
Neutral Citation	2019 INSC 747
Petitioner	R Lakshmikantham
Respondent	Devaraji
SCR	[2019] 9 S.C.R. 1009
Judgement Date	2019-07-10
Case Number	2420

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1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
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