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Bombay Garage Ahmedabad Limited & Ors. v. J P Iscon Private Ltd. & Anr.

Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1066Decided 29 Sept 2026
Civil Appeal arising out of SLP(C) No. 25909 of 2024
Justice J.B. Pardiwala · Justice K. Vinod Chandran

Background

The respondent sued for specific performance of an alleged oral agreement to sell land, claiming a concluded deal had been reached in meetings involving company representatives and a prominent third-party witness. Both the Trial Court and the High Court found in the respondent's favour and decreed specific performance, relying heavily on what they saw as evasive testimony from the defence witnesses.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court allowed the appeal, holding that a plaintiff seeking specific performance based purely on an oral agreement carries a heavy burden to prove a genuinely concluded contract, and that burden was not met here. It found the key witnesses either lacked direct knowledge, relied on inadmissible hearsay, or had no real authority to bind the company; a letter transmitting property documents did not itself prove a concluded deal; and a cheque allegedly handed over as part-payment was never actually presented to the bank. The Court emphasized that a defendant's evasive or inconsistent testimony cannot substitute for the plaintiff's own affirmative proof of a concluded contract. It set aside both lower courts' concurrent findings as "perverse," allowed the appeal, and dismissed the specific-performance suit entirely, with each side bearing its own costs.

Lesson Learnt

Courts will not infer a concluded oral contract for the sale of immovable property just because the other side's witnesses seemed evasive: the party seeking specific performance must independently and affirmatively prove every essential term was genuinely agreed.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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