In Brief
A farmer borrowed Rs. 3,000 from a lender and executed a deed titled "conditional sale" of his agricultural land in 1969, with a promise to get it back upon repayment within one year. The lender refused to return it. Twenty years later, the farmer sued for redemption (the right to recover mortgaged property by repaying the debt). The lower courts dismissed the suit, treating the deed as an absolute sale. The Supreme Court reversed this, holding the deed was a mortgage by conditional sale, not an absolute sale. The key factors: the document created a debtor-creditor relationship for a specific sum, contained a reconveyance condition within the same document, and lacked mortgage deed essentials like foreclosure rights. The plaintiff could redeem within 30 years of the redemption date. The lender's use of the land compensated for any improvements.
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