In Brief
A property owner executed a document with a five-year repurchase condition in 1948. The trial and first appellate courts held it was a mortgage by conditional sale, entitling the original owner to redeem the property. The High Court reversed, finding it was a sale deed with an option to repurchase. The Supreme Court affirmed the High Court, holding that the document's recitals showed an out-and-out sale, not a mortgage. The vendor sold to raise money for a vehicle, with no loan or debtor-creditor relationship mentioned. The mere inclusion of a repurchase option in one document cannot alone make it a mortgage by conditional sale; the true character depends on all circumstances, recitals, and parties' intentions."
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