MADEMSETTY SATYANARAYANA Vs. G YELLOJI RAO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE following judgment of the court was delivered by:

(2.) THIS appeal by certificate raises the question whether the High court went wrong, in the circumstances of the case, to give a decree for specific performance of an agreement to sell in favour of the plaintiff.

(3.) MR. A. Viswanatha Sastri, learned counsel for the 1st respondent, on the other hand, contended as follows : (1) Mere delay in filing a suit for specific performance could not possibly be a ground for exercising a discretion against a plaintiff, as the Limitation Act prescribed a period of 3 years for filing such a suit. (2) Under the Indian law relief of specific performance could be refused only if the plaintiff abandons or waives his right under the contract; and in the present case the appellant had not established either abandonment or waiver by the 1'st respondent of his right under the contract, for indeed as soon as he saw that the appellant had laid foundations for putting up structures on the plots, he rushed without any delay to the court and filed the suit. (3) In the circumstances of the instant case there is no scope for holding that the appellant could have had any reasonable belief that the 1st respondent had waived or abandoned his right, for it was the positive case of the appellant that there was no concluded sale at all.