Judgment

BOSE J.: This appeal arises out of a vendee s suit for specific performance of a contract of sale dated 7-2-1942. The vendor is the first defendant whom we will call the Nawab as that is how he has been referred to in the courts below. He is now in Pakistan and his property has been taken over by the Custodian, U. P. The plaintiff is the vendee and the second and third defendants, who appeal, are subsequent purchasers.

2. The only question which we are asked to decide here, except for certain subsidiary matters, is whether the agreement of 7-2-1942 was a concluded one. The plaintiff s case is that on that date the Nawab agreed to sell the plaint property to him for Rs. 62,000 and accepted Rs. 10,000 as earnest money the same day Later, namely on 4-4-1942, the Nawab sold the same property to the appellants for a sum of Rs. 72,000. The plaintiff states that the appellants had notice of his prior agreement.

3. The appellants, case is that the plaintiff s so called agreement of 7-2-1942 was not a concluded one as the parties never reached finality. They raised a number of other defences such as misrepresentation and fraud, an agreement with the Nawab prior to that of the plainti