Case no. – Special Leave to Petition (Crl.) No. 13675 of 2023
Case Title – Radheyshyam & Ors. v. State of Rajasthan & Anr
Citation : 2024 LiveLaw (595)
The Court said that a civil wrong can’t be given a criminal colour to coerce a party to sell the property.
The case originates from an Agreement to Sell dated June 29, 2020, between the appellants and complainant for the sale of a property in Rajgarh, Rajasthan for Rs. 5.11 crores. The complainant made an advance payment of Rs. 11 lakh, with Rs. 5 lakh paid in cash and Rs. 6 lakh through a cheque. The terms of payment schedule was a payment of Rs. 1 crore by September 30, 2020, with the remaining Rs. 4 crore to be paid within fifteen months after sept 2020, all within eighteen months after execution of agreement.
The conveyance, however, was not executed as per agreed terms . On May 24, 2022, the complainant filed an FIR alleging that despite paying Rs. 1 crore, the appellants refused to execute the conveyance/ sale deed of property. The complaint accused the appellants of cheating, claiming that they acted with dishonest intentions, in collusion with the appellant’s brother,
A bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Prasanna Bhalakrishna Varale held that dispute was of civil nature and the judicial process cannot be used as a tool to enforce specific performance of a contract.
The Supreme Court observed that:
“Mere non-performance of an Agreement to Sell by itself does not amount to cheating and breach of trust. Respondent no.2 has adequate remedy of filing a Civil Suit for relief of specific performance of a contract which he has already availed and the suit is still pending. The FIR only appears to be an arm-twisting mechanism to pressurise the appellants to execute the Sale Deed or to extract money. Every civil wrong cannot be converted into a criminal wrong. As we find in the present case, respondent no.2 is trying to abuse the criminal machinery for ulterior motives“, the court observed.
“The act of the appellant at best constitutes a civil wrong and does not call for any criminal action against them. A civil wrong cannot be given a criminal colour merely to coerce the appellants into registering the sale. The judicial process cannot be used as a tool to enforce specific performance of an agreement”,
The Supreme Court allowed the appeal, set aside the High Court’s order, and quashed the FIR. The court made it clear that its observations would not affect the pending civil suit, which would be decided on its own merits based on the evidence presented during the trial.
