In specific performance cases, the plaintiff must prove readiness and willingness, and without necessary permissions, the sale cannot be enforced, leading to recovery of amounts paid due to unjust enrichment.

Judgment :

(Rajani Dubey, J.)

1. The appellant/defendant No.1 has preferred this first appeal being aggrieved by the judgment and decree dated 25.07.2017 passed by 2^nd Additional District Judge, Ambikapur, Sarguja (C.G.), in Civil Suit No.A-25/2014, whereby the suit filed by the plaintiff/respondent No.1 herein for specific performance of contract and recovery of amount has been partly allowed. The parties to this appeal shall be referred herein as per their description before the trial Court.

2. Brief facts of the case, as per plaint averments, are that the plaintiff's husband Late Shri Arun Singh was posted as Sub Engineer in the Rural Engineering Department, Govt. of Chhattisgarh, and working in the charge of Sub-Divisional Officer. During the service period, plaintiff’s husband died untimely on 19.04.2010. The plaintiff and her children being the legal heirs received a large sum of money after the death of her husband/father, which was deposited by the plaintiff in different accounts to secure her family’s future. The plaintiff's husband during his lifetime had purchased a plot in Dutta Colony and had constructed a two storey residential building on it. After the death of her husband, the plaintiff had rented the ground floor of the said building to defendant No.1 for L.G. Company’s service center on a monthly rent of Rs.7,000/-. Later, the upper floor of the building was also acquired by the defendant No.1 from the plaintiff on an increased rate of Rs.10,000/- per month. In the month of February, 2011, defendant No.1 told plaintiff that he has a part of land bearing Khasra No. 352/4 in Vasundhara Colony situated in village Fundudihari, Tehsil Ambikapur admeasuring about 0.014 hectare i.e. about 32X48 sq. ft. on which a house with all facilities has been constructed by taking loan from State Bank of India, Collectorate Branch, Ambikapur, but due to financial problem, he was not in a position to pay the installments of the loan and interest on the loan amount was increasing day by day, therefore, to re-pay the loan amount, he intend to sale the said house. On repeated request made by the defendant No.1 that if the said house is not purchased by her, he would be ruined in debt, then the plaintiff agreed to buy the said house from defendant No.1 for sale consideration of Rs. 10,00,000/-. On the deal being finalised, the plaintiff transferred Rs.7,00,000/- from the account of her elder daughter Aanchal Singh to the account of defendant No.1 on 19.04.2011 and also gave him Rs. 1,00,000/- in cash from her own pocket. The next day, an agreement to this effect was executed by both the parties in Ambikapur court. According to the present record of the said house, the changed Khasra number is 352/139 and area is 0.014 hectare. After receiving Rs. 8,00,000/- (eight lakhs) as earnest money, the defendant No.1 gave formal possession of the suit property to the plaintiff. Thereafter, on the request of the defendant No.1 to give the suit property on rent and to vacate the suit property as soon as he gets a rented house, the plaintiff agreed to give the suit property on rent and rent agreement was also executed in this regard and since then he has been residing in the suit property. Since the 'suit property' is revenue land and diverted, as such, permission of the Collector was required for its sale, therefore, after execution of the agreement, on submitting an application in the court of Collector Surguja, Ambikapur for obtaining permission to sell the suit property, all formalities were completed and the Collector granted permission for sale of the 'suit property' on 20.03.2017. During the operation of above case, defendant No.1 obtained Rs. 5,64,697/- from the plaintiff stating that he needed money to get back the land rights and rin pustika of the suit property deposited in the bank against security of the bank loan, which the plaintiff transferred from the bank account of her younger daughter Anamika Singh to the bank account of defenda