Whether the court can rely on agreement of sale if police constable fails to obtain permission from the department before entering into the transaction?

 It cannot be denied that the respondent-plaintiff being a

Police Constable was mandatorily required to seek permission

from his department before entering into an agreement to

purchase property of such a high value. However, admittedly, he

did not seek any such permission from the department. As per the

disputed agreement, the appellant-defendant agreed to sell the

suit land to the respondent-plaintiff @ Rs. 5,00,000/- per Killa,

which was just about half of the market rate of the land at the

relevant point of time, as admitted by the respondent-plaintiff.

Going by the rate as fixed in the disputed agreement, the total sale

consideration would have amounted to approximately,

Rs.18,87,000/-. The disputed agreement recites that the

appellant-defendant had received earnest money to the tune of

Rs.16,00,000/- for the purpose of doing agriculture and to buy

cheaper and better land nearby. Thus, a lion’s share of the sale

consideration was already paid to the appellant-defendant at the

time of the execution of the disputed agreement and the remaining

amount was hardly 15% of the total value of the suit land as agreed

upon between the parties. Therefore, it does not stand to reason

that the respondent-plaintiff being a Police Constable would part

with a huge sum of Rs.16,00,000/- towards a transaction to

purchase land and thereafter, agree to defer the execution of the

sale deed to a date almost 16 months later with the balance

amount being a fraction of the total sale consideration. {Para 28}

REPORTABLE

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

 CIVIL APPEAL NO(S). OF 2024

 (Arising out of SLP(Civil) No(s). 30250 of 2018)

LAKHA SINGH Vs BALWINDER SINGH & ANR. 

Coram: Mehta, J.

Citation: 2024 INSC 744.

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