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v. A suit for specific performance cannot be decreed in a piecemeal manner. The High Court ought to have accepted the trial Court’s decision and rejected the purchaser’s appeal. Moreover, grant of specific relief only to the extent of 90% itself indicates that the purchaser was not ready and willing to perform the contract and consequently, is not entitled to the decree. vi. The High Court, while overturning the trial Court’s judgement, stated that the discretion to grant specific performance was taken away by the 2018 amendment to Section 10 of the Specific Relief Act. However, both the Delhi High Court and Karnataka High Court have rightly  taken the view that the amendment, being substantive, would be applicable prospectively. The impugned judgement erroneously states that the amendment is merely procedural and would apply retrospectively. vii. The High Court has misconstrued Section 12 of the Specific Relief Act. The section would not be applicable to the present case as the question of ‘inability to perform a contract’ does not arise.

45. We do not subscribe to the aforesaid reasoning provided by the High Court for the simple reason that after the 2018 amendment, specific performance, which stood as a discretionary remedy, is not codified as an enforceable right which is not dependent anymore on equitable principles expounded by judges, rather it is founded on satisfaction of the requisite ingredients as provided under the Specific Relief Act. For determination of whether a substituted law is procedural or substantive, reference to the nature of the parent enactment may not be material. Instead, it is the nature of the amendments which determine whether they are in the realm of procedural or substantive law.

48. In any case, the amendment carried out in 2018 was enacted to further bolster adherence to the sanctity of contracts. This approach was radical and created new rights and obligations which did not exist prior to such an amendment. Section 10, after amendment, reads as under:

10. Specific performance in respect of contracts.—The specific performance of a contract shall be enforced by the court subject to the provisions contained in sub­section (2) of section 11, section 14 and section 16.

66. This Court does not subscribe to acceptance of a general standard of good faith to imply broader good faith obligations only to give a go­by to the explicit conditions for maintaining the sanctity of contract. Such broad standards will have potentially far reaching consequences. This Court agrees that such an implicit reading would come into play post the 2018 Amendment to the Specific Relief Act which enables specific performance of contracts to uphold their sanctity. However, from the facts and circumstances of this case, we cannot accept that such higher standards of good faith was relevant.