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Dalip Singh(D) through LRs. vs. Sawan Singh (D) through LRs.

Not available · 2025 INSC 1498Decided 12 Nov 2025
Not available
Justice B.V. Nagarathna · Justice R. Mahadevan

Background

The appellants (mortgagees) held roughly 114 kanals of agricultural land at Village Tamkot, Tehsil Mansa, District Bathinda, mortgaged to them by the respondents' ancestors. The respondents sought redemption of the mortgage before the Collector in 1975 under Section 6 of the Redemption of Mortgage Act, 1913, which was allowed. The appellants challenged this, and after years of litigation, including an earlier round before the Supreme Court that remanded the matter for fresh consideration, the Punjab and Haryana High Court ultimately ruled in 2010 that the respondents' right to redeem the mortgage was not barred by limitation.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court examined the High Court's reliance on precedent holding that, for a usufructuary mortgage with no fixed redemption period, the limitation period for redemption runs not from the date of the mortgage but from the date the mortgagor actually tenders or deposits the mortgage money. Finding this reasoning sound and consistent with binding precedent, the Court agreed that the respondents' redemption claim was not time-barred. The appeal filed by the mortgagee-plaintiffs was dismissed, the High Court's judgment was affirmed, and the plaintiffs' suit was itself dismissed.

Lesson Learnt

For a usufructuary mortgage with no fixed time limit for redemption, the limitation clock for the mortgagor's right to redeem starts only when the mortgagor actually offers or deposits the mortgage money, not from the date the mortgage was created decades earlier.

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

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