In Brief
A landowner pledged his property to secure a Rs.1,500 loan via a 1969 deed styled "Conditional Sale" allowing the lender to possess and use the land for five years. The lender later sold the land to a third party. The landowner sued for redemption, claiming it was a mortgage. The Supreme Court held the deed was indeed a mortgage by conditional sale under Section 58(c) of the Transfer of Property Act, not an outright sale, because it embodied a single-document condition allowing repurchase. The suit was timely under a 30-year limitation period. The Court modified the decree to require the lender to repay the third party Rs.30,000 (the purchase price he paid), invoking Article 142 to do complete justice and prevent future litigation between the parties.
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