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Sanjay Singh and Anr. v. Central Himalayan Land Development Co. Ltd.

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 251Decided 21 Feb 2019
Civil Appeal No. 1928 of 2019
Justice Uday Umesh Lalit · Justice Ashok Bhushan

Background

The appellants had booked a villa from the respondent developer in a hill-town project in Uttarakhand, paying most of the price through a bank loan. A dispute arose over a demand for additional interest on a small balance amount, which the appellants tendered but the developer refused to accept. The developer's recovery suit for the balance (with interest) was dismissed by the trial court, and the developer's appeal to the Delhi High Court was filed 721 days late. During the appeal, the High Court first worked out an arrangement where the appellants deposited the balance sum and the developer handed over possession of the completed villa, but at the final hearing the High Court reversed this, condoned the developer's 721-day delay, ordered the villa's possession reversed back to the developer, and sent the matter back to be heard as a regular first appeal. The buyers appealed this reversal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court allowed the buyers' appeal, holding that the High Court had been wrong to upset an arrangement that the parties themselves had already implemented (deposit of balance money plus actual handover of villa possession) without any satisfactory reason to reverse it. More importantly, the Court held that condoning a 721-day delay in filing the appeal was unjustified on the facts, since the developer's explanation (blaming its former advocate for failing to inform it of the suit's dismissal) was not credible: the developer had not seriously pursued its own complaint against that advocate and could not satisfactorily explain gaps in its account. The Court therefore set aside the condonation of delay, which meant the developer's first appeal itself stood dismissed, while directing that the villa possession already handed to the buyers remain with them, and that the deposited balance amount (now a fixed deposit) be released to the developer with accrued interest once it matured.

Lesson Learnt

Courts will not condone very long delays in filing an appeal (here, nearly two years) based on vague, unverified explanations like blaming a lawyer's negligence: a party seeking condonation must show real, provable diligence, and an arrangement the parties have already carried out (like handing over possession) should not be casually unwound without good reason.

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

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