The main legal point established is that a sale agreement obtained by undue influence and fraud is voidable, and the burden of proving absence of undue influence and fraud lies on the party seeking to enforce the agreement.

1. The defendants in O.S.No.24 of 1996 on the file of the Subordinate Judge, Bhavani are the appellants and the plaintiff in the suit is the respondent herein.

2. The said suit was filed for specific performance based on a registered Sale Agreement dated 31.08.1994 entered into between the defendants and the plaintiff. The suit was dismissed by the trial Court. As against the same, an appeal was preferred by the plaintiff in A.S.No.27 of 1997 on the file of the I Additional District Judge cum Chief Judicial Magistrate, Erode. By decree and judgment dated 13.02.1998, the lower appellate Court allowed the appeal thereby setting aside the decree and judgment of the trial Court and decreed the suit as prayed for. As against the same, the defendants are before this Court with this Second Appeal.

3. The case of the plaintiff as could be culled out from the plaint is as follows: The defendants are the absolute owners of the suit property. On 31.08.1994, the defendants entered into a sale agreement with the plaintiff by which the defendants agreed to sell the suit property to the plaintiff for a valuable consideration of Rs.40,000/-. A sum of Rs.30,000/- was paid at the time of execution of the sale agreement itself as advance.

The balance of sale consideration was, thus, Rs.10,000/-. As per the agreement, it was agreed upon that the plaintiff should pay the balance of sale consideration within five years from the date of sale agreement and get the sale deed executed in his favour. Ever since the date of agreement, the plaintiff was always ready and willing to perform his part of agreement and to get the sale completed in his favour. But the defendants did not come forward to receive the balance of sale consideration and to complete the sale in favour of the plaintiff. In those circumstances, the plaintiff issued a legal notice on 04.01.1996 to the defendants calling upon them to perform their part of contract. No reply whatsoever was sent by the defendants nor did they come forward to complete the sale in favour of the plaintiff. Therefore, the plaintiff filed the present suit for specific performance.

4. In the written statement, the defendants contended that it is true that they are the absolute owners of the suit property. But it is not true that they intended to sell the suit property to the plaintiff and further they did not execute the sale agreement dated 31.08.1994 with an intention to sell the suit property. Further, it is contended that they have never agreed to sell the suit property for Rs.40,000/- and they did not receive a sum of Rs.30,000/- as stated in the plaint. According to their specific case, the plaintiff is doing money lending business along with few other persons including one Mr.Uthirakumar under the name and style of "Sabari Arul Finance" at Oricheri Pudur village. The second defendant borrowed a sum of Rs.4,000/- from the said finance, thereby agreeing to repay the said amount with interest at the rate of 12%. But the second defendant was not able to pay the interest regularly for the said amount to the said concern. While so, his father had fallen seriously ill due to paralysis. In order to meet out the medical expenses for his ailing father, who was hospitalised in a private hospital at Erode, the second defendant borrowed yet another sum of Rs.10,000/- from the said "Sabari Arul Finance". As per the terms of the loan, the second defendant should have paid a sum of Rs.1,250/- per month for a total period of 10 months. Accordingly, he paid the dues for five months. The balance he could not pay since in the meanwhile, his father died. The balance amount to be paid to the said finance corporation was Rs.9,000/- under the above two transactions, besides interest. Since the second defendant could not pay the said amount, the plaintiff and other partners of the finance corporation along with few others, convened a Panchayat and in the Panchayat they wanted the defendants to execute a sale agreement as