Bela M. Trivedi JUDGMENT
Surya Kant, J.
1. Leave Granted.
2. The present appeal is directed against the judgment dated 15.05.2019 passed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana whereby a second appeal preferred by the Appellants was dismissed and judgment and decree of the Trial Court as well as the First Appellate Court were affirmed. The decree entitled the Respondent for the recovery of earnest money, which constituted of partly paid sale consideration in lieu of the concerned agreements to sale along with requisite interest. The factual matrix is succinctly discussed before delving into the issue of law regarding breach of contractual terms which requires adjudication before us.
A. FACTS
3. The subject matter of the original suit was a property measuring 23 Kanals 4 Marlas bearing Khewat No. 226, Khatauni No. 225, Rect. No. 27, Kila No. 3 min (2-9), 4 min (4-15), 7(8-0), 14(4-0) situated in the revenue estate of Village Tigra, Tehsil and District Gurgaon (hereinafter, 'Concerned Property') which the Appellants jointly owned to the extent of their respective shares.
4. Two separate agreements to sell were entered between the present parties for the Concerned Property on 17.02.2004 (hereinafter, 'Sale Agreements'). In the first agreement, Appellant Nos. 1 to 4 agreed to sell their share to the extent of 4/5th of the Concerned Property while in the second agreement, Appellant No. 5 agreed to sell the remaining 1/5th share to the Respondent which accrued to her and her minor son. It must be noted that the material terms of both agreements are identical except that in the second agreement, Appellant No. 5 was contractually bound to secure the permission under The Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956 to sell the share of the minor.
5. Under the Sale Agreements, the sale consideration was set at the rate of Rs. 79,00,000/- per acre. Accordingly, the Respondent is stated to have paid Rs. 22,90,000/- in total as part payment of the sale consideration which was in the nature of earnest money. As per Clause 4 of Sale Agreements, the earnest money could be confiscated by the Appellants if the sale deed was not executed on prescribed date, i.e. 16.08.2004 (hereinafter, 'Date of Execution'). Furthermore, as per Clause 8 of the Sale Agreements, the Respondent was also liable to secure all the necessary No Objection Certificates (hereinafter, 'NOC'). Additionally, he had to also intimate the Appellants regarding the grant of NOCs well before the Date of Execution, failing which the agreement was deemed to be cancelled.
6. The Appellants state that as per the Sale Agreements, requisite permission under The Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956 was obtained by them before the Date of Execution. The same was communicated to the Respondent via notice dated 10.07.2004. Their case is that in furtherance of the agreements, Appellants appeared before the Sub-Registrar, Gurgaon on the Date of Execution but the Respondent failed to appear before the Sub-Registrar for the purpose of executing the sale deed and payment of balance sale consideration.
7. The Appellants serve........