INJUNCTION

The term ‘injunction’ has been outlined in varied ways. It has been defined by Joyce as, “An order remedial, the general purpose of which is to restrain the commission of some wrongful act of the party informed”. Burney has defined injunction as, “a judicial process, by which one who has invaded or threatening to invade the rights of another is restrained from continuing or commencing such wrongful act”. The foremost communicative and universally acknowledged definition is propounded by Lord Halsbury. According to Halsbury, “An injunction is a judicial process whereby a party in an order to refrain from doing or to do a particular act or thing”. Injunction acts against an individual i.e., it does not run with the property. For instance, ‘A’ the plaintiff gets an injunction against ‘B’ forbidding him to make any construction upon that property. ‘B’ sells the property to ‘C’. In such a case, the sale does carry the injunction with it. An injunction can be issued against anyone, they may be individuals, public bodies or even the State. In simple terms, an injunction is an order of a Court abstaining a person from doing an act which he should not do. The disobedience of the order of injunction is punishable as contempt of court. Moreover, there are three attributes of an injunction. They are as follows.

• A judicial process.
• The relief obtained is restraint or bar.
• The act restrained is wrongful.

There are basically two types of injunction as provided by section 36 of the Specific Relief Act, 1963 as mentioned below:

1. Temporary Injunction
2. Perpetual/Permanent Injunction

Both types of injunctions are discussed below.

Temporary Injunctions:

The temporary injunction has been incorporated under section 37 of the Specific Relief Act, 1963. In simple terms, a temporary injunction is such an order of the Court which either continues until a specified period of time, or unless the Court uplifts such an order, or which may be granted in the middle of a suit restraining for a particular act. The whole segment of a temporary injunction is regulated by the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.

Perpetual/Permanent Injunction:

Section 37 (2) of the Act stipulates that a permanent injunction can be granted by a decree upon the merits of the particular case. In simple terms, for getting a permanent injunction, a regular suit is to be filed in which the right claimed is examined upon merits and finally, the injunction is granted by means of judgment. A permanent injunction therefore finally decides the rights of an individual whereas a temporary injunction does not do though. A permanent injunction completely abstains the defendant to assert a right which would be contrary to the rights of the plaintiff.

There are cases in which the nature of agreement does not admit specific performance, nor damages likely to serve the purpose. In such cases, the court may restrain the party from threatening the breach by way of an injunction. Further, it should be taken into concern that an interim injunction can only be granted when a perpetual injunction is prayed for in a suit.