LAW FOR ALL

whether the High Court was right in holding that the application filed by the auction purchaser under Order XXI Rule 95 C.P.C. for delivery of possession of immovable property was barred by limitation. 7. Article 134 of the Limitation Act will apply to an application filed under Order XXI Rule 95 C.P.C. by the auction purchaser for delivery of possession of property sold in execution of a decree. The limitation for filing an application under Order XXI Rule 95 C.P.C. is one year from the date when the sale becomes absolute.= sale confirmation is different from sale become absolute = where there is an appeal from an order of the Subordinate Judge, disallowing the application to set aside the sale, the sale will not become absolute within the meaning of Article 180 of the Limitation Act, until the disposal of the appeal, even though the Subordinate Judge may have confirmed the sale, as he was bound to do, when he decided to disallow the above-mentioned application.” [Underlining added] The same view was reiterated in the case of Sri Ranga Nilayan Rama Krishna Rao vs. Kandokori Chellayamma AIR 1953 SC 425. 17. Considering the facts of the present case in the light of the above principles, in our view, the sale could not have become absolute till the proceedings in the revision in C.R.P.No.2829/2002 was over and the revision was disposed of. The judgment-debtor, as discussed earlier, had filed two applications E.A.No.315/2001- (i) to set aside the sale alleging that the property was sold for a lower price as a result of which substantial injury was caused to him and (ii) another application in E.A. No.77/2002- an application for appointing Advocate-Commissioner to assess the value of the property. As against the order dismissing E.A.No.77/2002, the judgment- debtor has filed the revision in C.R.P.No.2829/2002. So long as the said revision was pending, the court auction sale was yet to become absolute. For the sake of arguments, assuming that the said revision was allowed, then in that case the court auction sale would have been set aside on the ground that the property was sold for a lesser price. Therefore, till the revision in C.R.P. No. 2829 of 2002 was disposed of in one way or the other, the sale was yet to become absolute. Be it noted that in Article 134 of the Limitation Act, the legislature has consciously adopted the expression “when the sale becomes absolute” and not when the sale was confirmed. As against the order dismissing E.A No.77/2002 since the revision was preferred by the judgment-debtor and the same came to be disposed of on 9th July, 2003 the sale became absolute only on 9th July, 2003. The application filed under Order XXI Rule 95 C.P.C on 30th August, 2003 was well within the period of limitation. In our view, the High Court was not right in holding that the application under Order XXI Rule 95 C.P.C was barred by limitation and the impugned order cannot be sustained.