Hon’ble Pankaj Mithal, J.—One Narsingh Prasad Gupta was the original owner of the suit property which is a dwelling house. In the said house one Shyam Kishore Misra, was living as a tenant. At one point of time Narsingh Prasad Gupta was in need of financial help. He borrowed a sum of Rs. 4000/- from the tenant Shyam Kishore Misra. An agreement dated 4.11.1970 was entered into between them providing that Narsingh Prasad Gupta would return the borrowed amount of Rs. 4000/- with interest @ 2% per month to Shyam Kishore Misra within a period of 8 years and in the event the amount is not returned he would transfer the said house in favour of his heirs/nominees for a sale consideration of Rs. 15000/-. In the event of non-payment of the borrowed amount with interest within the stipulated time the agreement w.e.f. 5.11.1978 would be an agreement to sell the property and that Narsingh Prasad Gupta would execute the sale-deed within three years thereafter on receiving the balance sale consideration of Rs. 8,210/- after adjusting a sum of Rs. 6,790/- as the principal amount borrowed with interest.

2. The aforesaid Naringh Prasad Gupta on 20.3.1975 also executed a registered agreement to transfer the aforesaid dwelling house in favour of Smt. Lal Pari for a sale consideration of Rs. 16,100/-.

3. On the basis of the above agreement Smt. Lal Pari instituted original suit No. 128 of 1978 for specific performance of the agreement to sell against Narsingh Prasad Gupta. During the pendency of the suit Narsingh Prasad Gupta expired and his heirs namely his widow Smt. Munni Devi and the son Ramesh Chandra were substituted. They compromised the matter with Smt. Lal Pari and on the basis of compromise deed the suit was finally decided/decreed on 31.1.1981. According to the compromise decree, a sale-deed transferring the dwelling house was executed on 30.6.1981 by the heirs of Narsingh Prasad Gupta in favour of Smt. Lal Pari.

4. Before the above decree and the sale-deed, the sons of the tenant Shyam Kishore Misra, namely Shiv Mohan Misra and Kripa Shankar Misra on the basis of the agreement dated 4.11.1970 filed original suit No. 3 of 1981 for a decree of specific performance alleging that Narsingh Prasad Gupta failed to return the borrowed amount with interest and therefore, a sale-deed of the said house be executed in their favour. The aforesaid suit was decreed ex parte on 24.4.1981 against the heirs of Narsingh Prasad Gupta.

5. At this juncture, the heirs of the tenant Shyam Kishore Misra ie. Shiv Mohan Misra and Kripa Shankar Misra filed another original suit No. 143 of 1981 for the cancellation of the sale-deed dated 30.6.1981 executed by the heirs of Narsingh Prasad Gupta in favour of Smt. Lal Pari pursuant to the decree in original suit No. 128 of 1978.

6. This probably become necessary as it was not possible to execute the ex parte decree without getting the above sale-deed ineffective.

7. The above suit after contest was dismissed on 30.7.1985 but on appeal being preferred, was decreed on 30.6.1986.

8. Aggrieved by the decree so passed by the appellate Court cancelling the sale-deed dated 30.6.1981, Smt. Lal Pari preferred this second appeal.

9. The appeal was admitted. The relevant portion of the order admitting the appeal reads as under :

“The principal question arising in this appeal is about the legality and the effect of the alleged agreement subsequent to the agreement of sale dated 4.11.1970 and whether it is enforceable.”

The order states that the above aspect raises a substantial question of law.

10. The appeal came up for hearing on several occasions and on one of them i.e. 2.9.2014, the Court after hearing the parties was pleased to reformulate the following substantial questions of law :

“1. Whether the document dated 4.11.1970 can be termed to be an agreement to sell? If yes, then from which date it has become enforceable?

2. Whether the registered agreement to sell dated 20.3.1975 can be termed to be a subsequent agre