JUDGMENT :

J.J. MUNIR, J.

1. This is a defendant’s appeal arising out of a suit for specific performance of contract.

2. Ramji Lal instituted Suit No. 538 of 1986 in the Court of the Civil Judge (now Civil Judge, Senior Division), Agra against Kashi Ram, seeking a decree for specific performance of agreement to sell dated 06.07.1984 and a further agreement to sell dated 18.06.1985, together with a direction to deliver possession of the property, subject matter of the suit, within time to be stipulated by the Court and in default, to carry out the decree through the agency of Court. A further decree for the award of pendente lite and future mesne profits at the rate of Rs.10,000/- per annum was claimed, apart from costs of the suit.

3. The plaintiff, Ramji Lal, pleaded a case to the effect that the plaintiff and Kashi Ram, the defendant, entered into a bargain for the sale of agricultural Plot No. 306, admeasuring 5 bigha 15 biswa and 15 biswansi owned by the defendant and situate at Village Therai, Pargana Fatehabad, District Agra. The defendant agreed to sell the plot of land aforesaid in the plaintiff’s favour for a total sale consideration of Rs.65,000/-. A registered agreement to sell, according to the plaintiff, was executed by the defendant in the former’s favour on 06.07.1984. The agreement to sell dated 06.07.1984, executed between parties, was presented for registration to the Sub-Registrar, Tehsil Fatehabad, District Agra on 06.07.1984. The aforesaid agreement, which shall hereinafter be referred to as ‘the first suit agreement’, carried all terms between parties, upon which the defendant had covenanted to sell his agricultural land, above described, in favour of the plaintiff. The land, agreed to be sold and above described, shall hereinafter be called ‘the suit property’.

4. Kashi Ram, the sole defendant-appellant died pending this appeal and his heirs and LRs have been brought on record as defendant-appellant Nos. 1/1, 1/2, 1/3 and 1/4 to the appeal. The deceased-defendant, Kashi Ram, now represented by his heirs and LRs as aforesaid, shall hereinafter be referred to as ‘the defendant’. Ramji Lal, the sole plaintiff-respondent shall hereinafter be called ‘the plaintiff’.

5. It is the plaintiff’s case that the defendant received from him a sum of Rs.60,000/-as part of the agreed sale consideration and covenanted to execute a registered sale deed within one year of the first suit agreement, after securing an income tax certificate under Section 230-A of the Income Tax Act, 1961. The defendant requested extension of the period of time to perform his part of the contract, leading to the execution of another registered agreement on 18.06.1985, which enlarged the period of time for performance of obligations under the first suit agreement by one year i.e. up to 18.06.1986. The registered agreement to sell dated 18.06.1985 shall hereinafter be called ‘the second suit agreement’, and the first and second suit agreements, wherever referred to together, shall be called ‘the suit agreements’. The plaintiff says that he asked the defendant to execute a sale deed as covenanted under the suit agreements, but the defendant evaded discharging his obligation on one pretext or the other.

6. The plaintiff served a registered notice on 29th May, 1986, calling upon the defendant to execute the sale deed on 12.06.1986. The defendant did not turn up at the Sub-Registrar’s office at Tehsil Fatehabad, District Agra on the said date to execute a sale deed in the plaintiff’s favour. Instead, he sent a reply mentioning incorrect facts. The plaintiff pleaded that he had no alternative but to institute the present suit. It is then pleaded by the plaintiff that he has always been ready and willing to perform his part of the contract and is still ready and willing to perform his obligations under the suit agreements. It is also pleaded by the plaintiff that the defendant is liable to pay him damages for the use and occupation of the suit property @ Rs.