Ajay Dabra vs Pyare Ram
Background
A company, Himalayan Ski Village Pvt. Ltd., agreed to buy two plots of agricultural land in Kullu district from local landowners. Under Section 118 of the 1972 Act, a non-agriculturist cannot buy land in Himachal Pradesh without State Government permission, and the agreement required that permission to be obtained; it never was. The company then assigned its rights to Ajay Dabra, who sued for specific performance. The District Judge dismissed both suits in December 2016. Dabra filed his first appeals in the High Court 254 days late, explaining only that he lacked funds to pay court fee; the High Court refused to condone the delay.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court dismissed both appeals. On delay, it held that "insufficient funds for court fee" was not a sufficient cause, particularly for an affluent businessman and hotelier; in any case, Section 149 CPC allows an appeal to be filed with deficient court fee and the deficiency to be made up later within the time the court allows, with the appeal then treated as validly filed from the original date. Since the appellant never used that route, the High Court rightly refused condonation. On merits too, the Court found no case for interference: the State never granted the Section 118 permission, the agreement contained no clause allowing the buyer to assign its rights to an agriculturist, and the assignment was made without the seller's consent, so no decree of specific performance could follow. The Court stressed that Section 118 exists to protect small agriculturists and prevent conversion of farmland, and that routing a purchase through an agriculturist assignee for a non-agricultural purpose would defeat that object.
Lesson Learnt
Shortage of money for court fee is not a valid excuse for filing an appeal late, because the law lets you file first and pay the deficit later. Separately, an agreement whose performance depends on a statutory permission cannot be enforced, or side-stepped by assignment, once that permission is refused.