Injunction Suits: How to Stop Illegal Sale or Encroachment on Your Property

An injunction is a court order restraining a person from doing a specific act — selling a property, continuing construction, interfering with possession — and it can be sought urgently, often within days, through a temporary (interim) injunction application filed alongside the main suit, without waiting for the full case to be heard. Courts grant a temporary injunction when the applicant shows a prima facie case, that the balance of convenience favours them, and that they will suffer irreparable harm if the injunction isn't granted immediately — all three elements need to be addressed clearly in the application.

For a threatened illegal sale — for instance, where a co-owner, a person holding a misused Power of Attorney, or someone with a forged document is attempting to sell property without proper authority — an injunction can restrain the sale itself and, separately, can be used to put prospective buyers and the sub-registrar's office on notice, which practically discourages a genuine buyer from proceeding with the transaction.

For encroachment, an injunction can restrain further construction or use of the encroached area while the underlying ownership or boundary dispute is resolved, which is critical because encroachment that is allowed to continue unchallenged for years can itself develop into an adverse possession risk. Acting quickly on visible encroachment protects the underlying ownership claim, not just the immediate physical intrusion.

Because interim injunctions depend heavily on acting before the harm is complete, property owners facing a threatened sale or active encroachment should treat this as time-sensitive rather than something to address after gathering every document. Our Civil & Property Law practice files and defends injunction suits for property owners across Chennai and Tamil Nadu.

Related reading: where the aim is to stop a debtor from disposing of assets while a money suit is pending, see attachment before judgment under Order 38 Rule 5, and for guarantees see bank guarantee invocation and injunctions.