The Allahabad High Court ruled that a buyer who won a court order for a property's sale deed cannot enforce it after failing to pay the balance price for 20 years. The court cancelled a lower court order that had extended the buyer's time to pay, since the long delay was unexplained.
What this changes for a title check
For a title check, a decree for specific performance is not the same as a completed sale. This case shows a decree can sit unexecuted for two decades, with the buyer never depositing the court-fixed price and never getting the sale deed registered. Anyone checking title on a property where the chain includes a specific performance decree must ask for proof that the decree was actually executed, meaning a registered sale deed following the deposit, not just a certified copy of the court order. If the file only has the decree and no registered deed, the buyer's right to enforce it may now be time barred, so the seller named in the decree could still be treated as the real owner on record. This makes the encumbrance certificate and the sub-registrar's records more reliable than an old decree sitting in a litigation file, and it means a lawyer should always ask when, if ever, the balance amount was deposited into court.