The Supreme Court has clarified that the 2018 amendment to the Specific Relief Act, 1963, which made the grant of specific performance of contracts a mandatory relief, has no retrospective effect and does not apply to suits or transactions that arose before its enforcement on October 1, 2018.

The Bench comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra , while addressing the issue in a recent judgment, observed that prior to the 2018 amendment (brought through Act 18 of 2018) the grant of specific performance was a matter of judicial discretion, not a mandatory relief.

The bench referred to its earlier decision in Katta Sujatha Reddy v. Siddamsetty Infra Projects (P) Ltd (2022) .,which held that the 2018 amendment was prospective in nature and could not govern contracts or s

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