Supreme Court: Non-Payment of Balance Consideration Does Not Make a Registered Sale Deed Void
· Reported by Times of India
The Supreme Court held that a registered sale deed stays valid even if the buyer did not pay the full agreed price, because non-payment is a recovery matter, not a ground to treat the transfer as void. The seller's remedy is to sue for the balance, not to deny that the sale happened.
What this changes for a title check
This changes how a chain-of-title reading treats an apparently incomplete prior sale. A deed that recites unpaid consideration, or a seller who says an earlier buyer never fully paid so the property is still his, does not clear the earlier registered transfer off the title. The earlier buyer may still be the owner. During a 30-year search, a prior registered sale should be treated as effective unless it was formally cancelled or set aside, and a current seller's claim to have taken the property back needs a cancellation deed or a court order, not a verbal account of unpaid money.
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