The court held that agreements for the sale of agricultural land to non-agriculturists are unenforceable per Section 63 of the Tenancy Act, emphasizing the necessity for prior approval in such transactions.

JUDGEMENT

[1]

This group of Appeals from Order are essentially filed against an order passed below Exh.5 on 17.04.2014 by the learned Principal Senior Civil Judge, Ahmedabad (Rural) @ Viramgam, whereby, application for temporary injunction came to be entertained and the defendant No.2 and / or their servants and agents have been restrained from alienating, transferring and etc. as precisely stated in the operative part of the impugned order. Since common question of law and facts have arisen in the present group of Appeals from Order, learned senior advocates appearing for the respective parties have jointly requested the Court to deal with and decide these appeals conjointly by common order. As a result of this, the present group of Appeals from Order are taken up for final disposal by treating Appeal from Order No.205 of 2014, as a lead matter.

[2]

The facts emerging from the Appeal from Order No.205 of 2014 are that, the plaintiff i.e. opponent No.1 herein is a Private Limited Company incorporated under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956, and in the business of group housing, commercial and industrial development across India. The defendant No.1 was the sole and absolute owner of a piece of agricultural land, bearing Survey No.757, situated at Mouje-Sachana, Taluka-Viramgam, District Ahmedabad admeasuring 13,962 sq.mtrs (hereinafter referred to as “the suit property”). The plaintiff-company wanted to acquire the suit property which is undisputedly an agricultural land and after converting it into “non-agricultural land”, the plaintiff wanted to develop the same. As a result of this, a Memorandum of Understanding was executed between the plaintiff and defendant No.1 to purchase this non-agricultural land and the same is in the form of agreement to sell dated 21.11.2007, which was duly registered with the Sub-Registrar of Assurances on the same day, and as per this understanding, the same consideration of property was decided at Rs.14,18,964/- and out of the said amount, the plaintiff stated to have paid an amount of Rs.7,92,210/-. According to the plaintiff, on 29.03.2007, i.e. prior to this MOU in the form of agreement to sell, one Mr.Dharmendra Gandhi, who is the facilitator to the plaintiff, executed a MOU in favour of the plaintiff for sale of several lands situated at village Sachana, as a whole Block of land, around 700 Acres; including the suit property. The said facilitator, according to plaintiff, has assured the plaintiff that defendant No.1 and other owners of the land are in the knowledge of transaction of suit property and as per the MOU, the properties which were to be sold to the plaintiff were mentioned in MOU and the suit property was very much included in MOU, for which defendant No.1 was having a specific knowledge.

[2.1]

It is further the case of the plaintiff that pursuant to MOU between Mr.Dharmendra Gandhi and defendants, both of whom formed a group of farmers named in the plaint, who also agreed to purchase the same, as described in MOU dated 29.03.2007, this group was properly known as “Bharat Daliwala Group”. This MOU dated 29.03.2007 is in their name and subsequent to purchase of the said lands, defendant No.1 agreed to convert the said lands for non-agricultural use and the same was sold to the plaintiff. The case of the plaintiff further travels to the effect that defendant No.1 purchased the suit property by a deed of conveyance dated 28.02.2008 and defendant No.1, as per the mutual understanding arrived