Specific performance barred for granted land agreements

The Karnataka High Court at Bengaluru, per Justice R. Devdas, allowed a civil revision petition arising from O.S. No.1252/2006 and rejected the plaint under Order 7 Rule 11(d) CPC.

The plaintiff had sought specific performance of an agreement of sale dated 07.11.1997, along with declarations that later sale deeds executed by the defendants were not binding, and a permanent injunction. The defendants objected that the agreement itself related to granted land and was hit by the Karnataka Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prohibition of Transfer of Certain Lands) Act, 1978.

The Court accepted that submission. It relied on the settled position that an agreement of sale concerning granted land amounts to a transfer within the meaning of the PTCL Act and is barred by Section 4(2). The Court referred to the Supreme Court decision in Dharma Naika v. Rama Naika, as well as this Court’s earlier view in Venkatanarayanappa v. Siddappa, to hold that such an agreement is not enforceable in law and cannot support a decree for specific performance.

The Court also noted that the plaintiff’s later MOU with defendants No.1 and 2 could not be read into the original agreement of sale dated 07.11.1997 so as to save the suit. On the contrary, the agreement remained unenforceable in a court of law.

A further reason given was Section 4(3) of the PTCL Act, which extends the statutory bar even to sales made in execution of a civil court decree or order. On that reasoning, the Court held that even a decree for specific performance in respect of granted land would not stand outside the Act’s rigour. The Court therefore concluded that such a suit cannot be entertained by civil courts.

The result was that the civil revision petition was allowed, the trial court’s order dated 05.08.2022 was quashed, and the plaint in O.S. No.1252/2006 was rejected.

Practical takeaway: where the agreement concerns granted land protected by the PTCL Act, a civil suit for specific performance is barred at the threshold.