Real Estate and Property : Supreme Court Answers Important Legal Issue Related to Immovable Property

Real Estate and Property : Supreme Court Answers Important Legal Issue Related to Immovable Property

In a recent Judgment, Supreme Court has held that if a party after obtaining an assignment deed does not execute the decree, no right will enure to it in the immovable property.

The holding on the aspect of the need for registration of an assignment deed assigning a decree for specific performance of an agreement for sale, does not lay down the correct law.

The question which was answered here was:  "should a deed assigning a decree for specific performance of an agreement of sale of immovable property, be registered under the provisions of the Registration Act, 1908" ?

It was held that "neither an agreement of sale nor a decree passed on the basis of specific performance of the contract gives any right or title to the decree holder and the right and title passes to him only on the execution of the deed of sale either by the judgment debtor himself or by the Court itself in case the judgment debtor fails to execute the sale deed." "It is also relevant to notice the fundamental principle that with the passing of a decree of the specific performance, the contract between the parties is not extinguished. Section 28 of the Specific Relief Act, 1963, statutorily recognizes this principle with regard to contracts for the sale or lease of immovable property, the specific performance of which has been decreed."

Case reference is Rajeswari v. Shanmugam [2025] GCtR 1731 (SC).