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Sangita Sinha v. Bhawana Bhardwaj

Civil Appeal · 2025 INSC 450Decided 4 Apr 2025
C.A. No.-004972-004972 - 2025 (arising from SLP(C) No.28460 of 2024)
Justice Dipankar Datta · Justice Manmohan

Background

In 2008, Bhawana Bhardwaj (the buyer) entered into an unregistered agreement to sell for a Patna property with the elderly owner, paying part of the price in cash and post-dated cheques. The seller later claimed her signature had been fraudulently obtained, lodged a police complaint, sent a cancellation letter refunding part of the earnest money via demand drafts, and returned two of the three post-dated cheques, but the buyer went ahead and encashed the refund drafts anyway, then sued for specific performance. The trial court and Patna High Court both ruled in the buyer's favour and ordered the sale deed executed; the seller's beneficiary under a competing Will (the appellant) challenged this before the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court reversed, holding that a buyer must show continuous "readiness and willingness" to perform a contract from the date of the agreement right through to the decree, and that the buyer's act of encashing the seller's refund drafts months after the cancellation letter (and after suing) was conduct fatally inconsistent with genuine willingness to complete the purchase. The Court further held that once a seller sends a cancellation/repudiation letter, a buyer who accepts a refund cannot simply sue for specific performance without first seeking a declaration that the cancellation was invalid, omitting this made the suit itself not maintainable. The Court also found the buyer's failure to disclose the cancellation letter and refund in her plaint amounted to suppression of a material fact, independently disqualifying her from the discretionary and equitable remedy of specific performance. The sale deed already executed under the lower court's judgment was declared null and void.

Lesson Learnt

A buyer seeking court-ordered enforcement of a property sale agreement must maintain, prove, and disclose continuous readiness and willingness to complete the purchase at every stage of litigation, accepting a refund of the deposit money, or hiding a seller's cancellation notice from the court, can by itself defeat an otherwise valid claim.

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

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