LAW FOR ALL

Specific performance - rejected - though aware of two conveyances of the same property, the plaintiff did not ask for their cancellation. This again, would stand in the way of a decree of specific performance for unless the sale made by Defendant No. 1 to Defendant No.2, and thereafter by Defendant No.2 to Defendant No.3 are set aside, no decree for specific performance could possibly follow.; Ram Awadh (supra) is a judgment by three Judges of this Court overruling Jugraj Singh vs. Labh Singh, (1995) 2 SCC 31, in which it was held that the plea that the plaintiff is not ready and willing to perform the contract is personal only to the seller-defendant. Subsequent purchasers cannot take this plea. This was stated to be an erroneous view of the law by the three Judge Bench, and the judgment in Jugrag Singh was set aside as follows:- “6. The obligation imposed by Section 16 is upon the Court not to grant specific performance to a plaintiff who has not met the requirements of clauses (a),(b) and (c) thereof. A court may not, therefore, grant to a plaintiff who has failed to aver and to prove that he has performed or has always been ready and willing to perform his part of the agreement the specific performance whereof he seeks. There is, therefore, no question of the plea being available to one defendant and not to another. It is open to any defendant to contend and establish that the mandatory requirement of Section 16(c) has not been complied with and it is for the Court to determine whether it has or has not been complied with and, depending upon its conclusion, decree or decline to decree the suit. We are of the view that the decision in Jugraj Singh Case is erroneous.”