Non-alienation restraint bars specific performance of an agreement to sell made during the prohibited transfer period.

An agreement to sell executed during the statutory non-alienation period under Section 61 of the Karnataka Land Reforms Act was unenforceable because the land was still subject to a 15-year transfer restraint. The provision imposed a complete bar on sale, gift, exchange, mortgage, lease or assignment during that period and treated transfers in breach as invalid. Applying ex turpi causa non oritur actio and in pari delicto, the Court declined to assist a plaintiff whose claim for specific performance depended wholly on the prohibited transaction, and the suit was rightly dismissed.

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Issues: Whether an agreement to sell executed within the statutory non-alienation period under Section 61 of the Karnataka Land Reforms Act, 1961 was enforceable in law and capable of being specifically enforced.

Analysis: The land was granted subject to a 15-year restraint on transfer. The agreement to sell was executed within that prohibited period and the claim for specific performance rested entirely on that transaction. Section 61 imposed a complete bar on transfer by sale, gift, exchange, mortgage, lease or assignment during the stipulated period, and declared transfers made in contravention invalid. Applying the doctrines of ex turpi causa non oritur actio and in pari delicto potior est conditio defendentis et possidentis, the Court held that when both parties are participants in the illegality and the plaintiff's claim depends wholly on the forbidden transaction, the Court should not enforce it.

Conclusion: The agreement to sell was void and unenforceable, and the suit for specific performance was rightly dismissed.

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