The Supreme Court in a recent decision held that when a contract stipulates a specific time frame within which the consideration needs to be paid by the 'buyer' to execute the 'agreement to sale' by the 'seller', then the buyer must strictly adhere to such condition, otherwise, the 'buyer' can not avail a remedy of specific performance of the sale deed.
Reversing the concurrent judgments passed by the High Court and the First Appellate Court, the Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Ahsanuddin Amanullah, observed that within six months, there existed the onus of paying the entire balance, however, it is not the case of the respondents that they had even offered to pay the remaining/balance amount before the expiry of the six-month period and the obvious import would be that the respondents had not complied with their obligation under the Agreement within the six-month period.
