SC: Plaintiff can’t Claim Specific Performance and Permanent Injunction in same Suit

April 17, 2018

Case name: Sucha Singh Sodhi (D) Thr. LRs. v. Baldev Raj Walia & Anr.

Date of Judgement: April 13, 2018

Issue- Whether the Plaintiff could claim the relief of specific performance of agreement against the respondents/defendants in addition to his claim of permanent injunction in the previously instituted suit?

In the case, the Two-Judge Bench of the Supreme Court categorically stated that the plaintiff could not claim the relief of specific performance of agreement against the defendants along with the relief of permanent injunction in the previous suit and the reasons assigned by the Apex Court for the same are as under:

That the cause of action to claim a relief of permanent injunction and the cause of action to claim a relief of specific performance of agreement are independent and one cannot include the other and vice versa. Thus, a plaintiff cannot claim a relief of specific performance of agreement against the defendant on a cause of action on which he has claimed a relief of permanent injunction.
With reference to the facts of the instant case, the Supreme Court stated that when both the reliefs claimed i.e. permanent Injunction and specific performance of agreement are not identical, when the causes of action to sue are separate, when the factual ingredients necessary to constitute the respective causes of action for both the reliefs/claims are different and lastly, when both the reliefs/claims are governed by separate articles of the Limitation Act, then it is not possible to claim both the reliefs together on one cause of action.