Sale deed may be treated as mortgage when surrounding circumstances show a loan security arrangement and redemption remains maintainable.

A document styled as a sale deed may be proved, through surrounding circumstances and admissible extrinsic evidence, to be an anomalous mortgage with possession when the transaction functions as security for a loan; the connected agreement to sell may then be treated as supplementary to that mortgage. A redemption suit is not defeated merely by non-joinder of every interested person, court-fee objections, or technical jurisdiction points where effective relief can still be granted and the plaintiff has an interest in redemption. A decree obtained by inducing parties to sign blank papers and preventing a real contest may be treated as not binding. By contrast, where consideration is paid and no reconveyance or interest arrangement is proved, the sale remains an outright conveyance.

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Issues: (i) Whether the sale deed and agreement to sell were real conveyances or, in substance, an anomalous mortgage with possession; (ii) Whether the suit for redemption was barred for want of necessary parties, court-fee, jurisdiction, or limitation; (iii) Whether the decree in the earlier injunction suit was liable to be set aside for fraud and misrepresentation; (iv) Whether the suit land sale deed was also liable to be treated as a mortgage.

Issue (i): Whether the sale deed and agreement to sell were real conveyances or, in substance, an anomalous mortgage with possession.

Analysis: The surrounding circumstances, the inadequacy of consideration, the loan-like arrangement, delivery of possession, the agreed period for settlement of accounts, and the conduct of the parties showed that the documents relating to Amba Bhavan were not intended to operate as an outright sale. The bar under Sections 91 and 92 of the Evidence Act did not exclude evidence showing that a document ostensibly in the form of a sale was really executed as security for a loan. The evidence of the plaintiffs was preferred and adverse inference was drawn from withholding material witnesses.

Conclusion: The transaction concerning Amba Bhavan was held to be an anomalous mortgage and the connected agreement to sell was held to be supplementary to that mortgage, in favour of the respondents.

Issue (ii): Whether the suit for redemption was barred for want of necessary parties, court-fee, jurisdiction, or limitation.

Analysis: Order 34 Rule 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure was treated as procedural, and the absence of the husband as a party did not defeat the suit where effective relief could still be granted and the plaintiff had an interest in redemption. The court-fee objection was rejected because the relief was based on the real nature of the transaction and not on cancellation of the document as such. On the facts, the plea of want of jurisdiction and the technical objection based on the husband's absence were not accepted. The court also relied on the subsequent presumption of death under Section 108 of the Evidence Act to avoid driving the parties to a fresh suit after long pendency.

Conclusion: The redemption suit was held maintainable and was not defeated by non-joinder, court-fee, or jurisdiction objections, in favour of the respondents.

Issue (iii): Whether the decree in the earlier injunction suit was liable to be set aside for fraud and misrepresentation.

Analysis: The earlier decree was found to have been obtained by a trick, as the plaintiffs were induced to sign blank papers and were kept away from effectively contesting the proceeding. A decree procured by such conduct could not stand when the party had been prevented from placing its case fully before the court.

Conclusion: The earlier injunction decree was treated as not binding on the respondents, in favour of the respondents.

Issue (iv): Whether the suit land sale deed was also liable to be treated as a mortgage.

Analysis: Unlike the documents relating to Amba Bhavan, the evidence showed payment of the stated consideration, delivery of possession, and no proved agreement for reconveyance or interest arrangement. The land transaction was supported by the surrounding circumstances and the consideration was not shown to be unreal.

Conclusion: The sale deed relating to the suit land was held to be an outright sale, against the respondents.

Final Conclusion: The connected appeals were disposed of by sustaining dismissal of the suits for specific performance and injunction, while granting redemption relief in respect of Amba Bhavan alone and declining to treat the suit land transaction as a mortgage.

Ratio Decidendi: A document that is apparently a sale deed may be proved by surrounding circumstances and admissible extrinsic evidence to be only a security for a loan, and a redemption suit will not fail merely because all interested persons are not joined where effective relief can still be granted and the transaction is, in substance, a mortgage.

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