Transferee pendente lite prevents a purchaser from resisting execution of property sold after proceedings when notice of liability exists.

A transfer of immovable property made after the institution of proceedings culminating in a money decree, including an arbitral award enforceable as a decree, renders the purchaser a transferee pendente lite; such transferees cannot claim protections available to bona fide purchasers and the property is liable to attachment and execution. The purchaser must discharge the onus of proving absence of notice of the existing liability; failure to produce key documents and surrounding circumstances permits an inference of notice, supporting attachment and sale to satisfy the decree.

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Issues: (i) Whether a purchaser of immovable property by a sale deed dated 23.04.2015, where the arbitration proceedings between the judgment-debtor and decree-holder were instituted in 1999 and an arbitral award was passed in 2001, can resist attachment and execution of the property in execution of the arbitral award.

Analysis: The arbitral award dated 11.06.2001 is enforceable as a decree under Section 36 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. Order XXI Rule 102 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 bars a transferee pendente lite (a transfer made after the institution of the proceedings in which the decree is passed) from claiming protection available to bona fide claimants under Rules 98 and 100. The transfer to the purchaser occurred after institution of the arbitral proceedings in 1999 and after the award in 2001, bringing the purchaser within the concept of transferee pendente lite. The purchaser did not discharge the onus of proving that the sale was without notice of the existing liability; non-production of the tripartite agreement and the attendant circumstances support an inference of notice. Precedents applying the doctrine of lis pendens to money decrees and decisions treating post-decree transfers as vulnerable to execution are applicable.

Conclusion: The purchaser of the property by sale deed dated 23.04.2015 is a transferee pendente lite and is barred by Order XXI Rule 102 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 from resisting attachment and execution of the property in EP No. 300 of 2019. The claim petition contesting attachment was rightly dismissed by the courts below and the civil appeal is dismissed.

Ratio Decidendi: A transfer of property made after the institution of proceedings culminating in a money decree (including an arbitral award enforceable as a decree) is a transferee pendente lite; such transferees cannot invoke protections under Order XXI Rules 98 and 100 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, and the property is liable to attachment and sale to satisfy the decree where the purchaser fails to prove absence of notice.

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