RAM DAS GUPTA Vs. BHAJAN PRAKASH GIRHOTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A suit for redemption of mortgage of 2 shops filed by the plaintiff-respondent has been decreed by both the courts below. The plaintiffs case was that Ashok Kumar Sharma the original owner of the two shops in dispute had executed a deed of mortgage dated 13.1.1969 in favour of the appellant Ram Das Gupta. Ashok Kumar Sharma subsequently executed a sale deed dated 15.9.1975 of the disputed shops in favour of the plaintiff respondent who brought the suit for redemption. The defence was that the deed in question though described as mortgage was a sale as it bears a condition that if the mortgage money was not paid within a period of four years the transaction will be treated as a sale. Both the Courts below have found that this condition in the deed was a clog on the equity of redemption and therefore void.

(2.) Heard Shri R.P. Tewari learned counsel for the appellant and Shri G. N. Verma, learned senior counsel for the respondent.

(3.) The appeal was admitted on the following substantial question of law : (1) Whether the Courts below were right in holding that the condition in the mortgage deed dated 13.1.1969 that if the mortgage is not redeemed within four years, it will be treated as sale is a clog on the equity of redemption?