ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court of Pakistan has declared that courts do not have the legal authority to extend the time for depositing the balance sale consideration beyond the terms of an agreement, stating that doing so effectively rewrites the contract between the parties. A three-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, issued the ruling in a written order concerning an appeal against the Lahore High Court’s judgment dated June 24, 2016.
The court emphasized that the buyer’s sole obligation in a property transaction is to make timely payments as agreed. If the seller refuses payment, the buyer must demonstrate readiness and willingness to pay, either by offering the payment, preparing a pay order, or depositing the amount in court. The only exception is when the outstanding balance constitutes a small portion of the total sale consideration.
In this case, the petitioner had sought specific performance of an agreement dated April 17, 2006, for the sale of a house valued at 170,000 rupees, with 80,000 rupees paid and a balance of 90,000 rupees due by July 20, 2007. A subsequent agreement extended the payment deadline to February 20, 2008. The original suit was dismissed, but an appeal allowed by the Additional District Judge directed the petitioner to deposit the remaining amount within 15 days. Failure to comply led to the dismissal of the suit, and the petitioner’s subsequent execution proceedings were rejected by the Revisional Court and upheld by the High Court. The Supreme Court found no illegality in the decisions of the lower courts and dismissed the petition, stating that despite being granted extraordinary relief, the petitioner failed to pay the remaining sale amount.
SC has 60,508 pending cases
The number of pending cases in Supreme Court has reached to 60,508. A report issued in this regard said that 860 new cases were filed in 15 days from August 16 to 31st. It said that there are 33,269 civil, 10,335 criminal appeals and 28 suo-moto cases pending with the SC. The report said that there are 2,64000 review petitions are pending with the apex court. Furthermore, 134 applications of human rights cell and 3361 jail petitions were also pending.
