Lakha Singh vs Balwinder Singh 2024 INSC 744 – Specific Performance Suit – Article 136 Constitution

Constitution of India, 1950; Article 136– Jurisdiction under Article 136 of the Constitution of India should not be exercised unless the findings on facts recorded by the Courts below suffer from perversity or are based on omission to consider vital evidence available on record- The scope of an appeal by special leave under Article 136 of the Constitution of India against concurrent findings discussed -(Para 22-23)

Summary: Suit seeking a decree for specific performance of an agreement to sell in respect of an agricultural plot of land decreed – First Appellate Court and High Court dismissed appeals – Allowing appeal, SC observed: The averments set out in the plaint and the evidence of the plaintiff do not bear an iota of truth and appear to be nothing but a sheer concoction. The circumstances noted above, the evidence of the respondent-plaintiff; the disputed agreement and the plaint clearly indicates that the disputed agreement seems to have been prepared on a blank stamp paper on which, the thumb impressions of the illiterate appellantdefendant had been taken prior to its transcription. The large blank spaces on the first and second pages of the disputed agreement and the absence of thumb impression/signatures of the parties and the attesting witnesses on these two pages, fortifies the conclusion that the disputed agreement was transcribed on one of the blank stamp papers on which the thumb impression of the appellant-defendant had been taken beforehand.