Report No. 145

4.5. Considerations for the grant of Injunctions.-

It will be notice1 that a temporary injunction can be granted, only if it is required for restraining the defendant from committing a breach of contract or other injury of any kind under Order 39, rule 2(1) of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. By and large, "injury" denotes violation of a legal obligation. But the mere fact that one party alleges the possibility of an injury, does not necessarily entitle him to a temporary injunction. Well-established propositions exist on the subject2. Speaking very briefly, the court will take into reckoning the following guidelines3:-

(1) Whether the person seeking temporary injunction has made out a prima facie case. This is a sine qua non.

(2) Whether the balance of convenience is in his favour, i.e. whether it could cause greater inconvenience to him if the injunction is not granted, than the inconvenience which the other side would be put to, if the injunction is granted. As to that, the governing principle is, whether the party seeking injunction could be adequately compensated by awarding damages and the defendant would be in a financial position to pay them.

(3) Whether the person seeking temporary injunction would suffer irreparable injury, if the injunction is not granted. With the first condition as sine qua non, at least two conditions should be satisfied by the petitioner and a mere proof of one of the three conditions does not entitle a person to obtain temporary injunction.

1. Para. 4.4, supra.

2. Dorab Cawasji Warden v. Comi Scrub Warden, AIR 1990 SC 867, paras. 14-15.

3. Mulla Code of Civil Procedure (abridged edition, 1990), p. 1006.