In Brief
In this property dispute, the Supreme Court distinguished between a "mortgage by conditional sale" and a "sale with option to repurchase" under the Transfer of Property Act, 1882. A 1967 deed titled "mortgage by conditional sale" was disputed: the respondents claimed it was a redeemable mortgage; the appellants argued it was a conditional sale that became absolute after five years. The Court held that despite being in a single document, the transaction was a conditional sale, not a mortgage, because it lacked essential mortgage elements (debtor-creditor relationship, interest, foreclosure rights), and the original owner failed to repurchase within the five-year period. The judgment was reversed and the suit dismissed.
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