Proving Urgency: What the Affidavit Has to Say
The fate of an injunction application is usually decided before the argument begins, by the affidavit and the documents filed with it. A judge reading the file at 4 p.m. on a mentioning day needs to see, within the first two pages, what the applicant's right is, what the defendant is about to do, why money will not fix it, and why the application could not have been made earlier. Applications that bury these points in a narrative affidavit get "notice returnable" instead of an ad-interim order.
The affidavit should identify the right with precision. In a property dispute that means the title deed, mutation record, municipal assessment, rent receipts or possession documents, and a site plan showing exactly which portion is threatened. In a partnership or company dispute it means the deed or articles, the resolution relied on, bank statements showing the movement of funds, and the specific transaction that is about to be completed. In an intellectual property matter it means registration certificates, first-use evidence, and screenshots with dates.
Then the threat. "The defendant intends to sell" is an assertion; a registered agreement to sell, a newspaper advertisement, a broker's message, a photograph of demolition material arriving on site, or a caveat lodged by a purchaser is evidence. Where the act is imminent, say when it is expected and on what basis. Where it has already begun, say what remains to be preserved, because a court is far more willing to freeze a half-finished construction than to order a completed one demolished.
Documents That Decide Property and Business Injunctions
- Title chain: sale deeds, inheritance records, partition deeds or decree, with a chronology of how the applicant's title arose.
- Possession evidence: electricity and water bills in the applicant's name, property tax receipts, photographs, and statements of neighbours where relevant.
- The threatened transaction: agreement to sell, public notice, auction notice, bank loan documents, or correspondence demanding possession.
- Undertaking: an offer to compensate the defendant if the injunction is later found to have been obtained wrongly.
Courts grant interlocutory relief only to a party who comes with clean hands. Suppressing a prior suit, an earlier injunction order, a pending appeal, or the fact that possession was delivered years ago is the fastest way to lose both the application and credibility for the rest of the case. If there is an weakness — a gap in the title chain, a delay of two years, a related proceeding — disclose it and explain it. An explained weakness is survivable; a concealed one is not.
Why Injunction Applications Fail
The most common reasons are not legal subtleties. Applications fail because the applicant waited: a person who watched construction for eighteen months and moved only when the roof went on has a delay problem that no amount of merits can cure. They fail because the right itself is disputed and can only be settled at trial, so the court refuses to grant at an interim stage what is effectively the final relief. They fail because the harm is calculable — a lost rent, a delayed payment, a contract price — and damages are therefore an adequate remedy. And they fail because the balance of convenience does not favour stopping a large project for a small claim.
A granted injunction is not the end of the application. The defendant can move under Order XXXIX Rule 4 of the Code of Civil Procedure for vacation or modification, usually on the ground that material facts were suppressed or that circumstances have changed. An appeal against such an order lies under Order XLIII Rule 1(r), and it is decided on the material that was before the trial judge — so the record built at the application stage follows the case upward.
Compliance and Enforcement After the Order
An injunction binds the party named and anyone acting on their behalf with notice. Serve the order formally, with a copy of the petition and the affidavit, and keep proof of service. If it restrains alienation, consider a notice to the sub-registrar or a caveat so that a registration cannot quietly take place. If it restrains construction, a local commissioner's report with dated photographs is the cleanest evidence of breach.
Breach is dealt with by contempt, which requires proof of wilful disobedience rather than a dispute about interpretation. If an act is threatened this week, the application has to be drafted today: contact the chamber with the title documents and a short chronology.