Kaushik Premkumar Mishra & Anr. vs Kanji Ravaria @ Kanji & Anr.
Background
In 1985, the original owner (respondent no. 2) sold half of a plot of land in Maharashtra to the appellant and his minor brother, who took possession, while the other half was sold to their relatives on the same day. Due to a stamp-duty deficiency, the appellants' sale deed could not be registered at the time, even though the relatives' deed was registered and their names entered in revenue records. Taking advantage of the fact that the appellants' names never appeared in the official land records, the original owner executed a fresh conveyance deed for the very same land in favour of a new buyer (respondent no. 1) in 2010-25 years later. The appellants discovered this only when the new buyer tried to forcibly take possession of the fenced land in 2011.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court found this to be a clear case of a vendor engineering a fraudulent "double sale", selling the same land twice by exploiting a registration technicality, since the first sale (though never formally registered due to a curable stamp-duty defect) had already been acted upon with possession handed over decades earlier. The Court held that the appellants' long, unregistered but possession-backed 1985 sale deed prevailed, and that the later 2010 conveyance deed in favour of respondent no. 1 was invalid and had to be cancelled. It restored the first appellate court's decree in the appellants' favour, and, given the vendor's and second buyer's conduct, imposed exemplary costs of Rs. 10 lakh, to be paid equally by the two respondents within the specified time.
Lesson Learnt
A sale deed that is unregistered due to a mere technical defect like insufficient stamp duty does not become worthless, especially where the buyer was actually put into possession of the property. Courts will look past registration formalities to protect a genuine, long-possessed buyer against a vendor who dishonestly tries to resell the same land to someone else years later.