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Sharada Sanghi & Ors. v. Asha Agarwal & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 292Decided 25 Mar 2026
C.A. No.-002609-002609 - 2013
Justice Dipankar Datta · Justice Augustine George Masih · Justice Satish Chandra Sharma

Background

The appellants had obtained a decree for specific performance of a 1986 agreement to purchase a portion of a Hyderabad property and, after the decree attained finality, began executing it through court in 2001. At that stage, respondents 1-3, who were not parties to the original suit, objected to the execution claiming independent title through sale deeds from a different vendor, and the appellants' own earlier suits to cancel those sale deeds had been dismissed for default and never revived. The executing court initially rejected the respondents' objection, but the first appellate court and then the High Court held that since the respondents were not parties to the specific performance suit, the decree did not bind them and the appellants would have to file a fresh suit against them.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the appellants, having allowed their own suits challenging the rival sale deeds to be dismissed for default and never pursuing restoration, could not now revive that same title dispute indirectly through execution proceedings: this amounted to an abuse of the process of court. Relying on principles of finality of litigation, the doctrine against relitigation from K.K. Modi v. K.N. Modi, and the public policy underlying Order XXIII Rule 1 CPC as explained in Sarguja Transport Service, the Court found the appellants could not selectively invoke the judicial process to their advantage after abandoning the parallel challenge to the rival title. While disagreeing with some of the reasoning of the lower appellate court, the Supreme Court agreed with its ultimate conclusion and upheld the judgment, dismissing the appeal.

Lesson Learnt

A litigant who deliberately lets a suit challenging a rival claim lapse cannot later resurrect the same issue through a different proceeding, such as execution of an unrelated decree. Courts treat such selective, opportunistic use of litigation as an abuse of process, regardless of whether strict res judicata applies.

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

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