JUDGMENT

Dated this the 5th day of August 2020 A very efficacious, substantive and procedural mechanism to facilitate the realisation of the deserving and intrinsic value of encumbered estates and other immovable properties - within the annals of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 ('the TP Act' for short) - strangely appears very rarely to have been invoked in Courts, which impression is inevitable because the case law on it is scarce, if not, none.

2. The provision in reference is Section 57 of the TP Act, which enables any party to the sale of immovable property burdened by an encumbrance, to apply to Court for a declaration that the said property is freed from such encumbrance on deposit of sums to be adjudged by it; and for the issuance of an order of conveyance or vesting order, proper for giving effect to the sale.

3. The apparent fact that this Section, though in the TP Act for the past more than a century and quarter, has attracted little or no reported judgments anywhere in India, obligates me to examine it very closely and carefully from both its academic and practical ambit. 4. This Section of the TP Act is, with the exception of its last two sub sections, almost verbat