The Specific Relief Act, 1963 | |
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Parliament of India | |
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Citation | https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1671917/ |
Enacted by | Parliament of India |
Assented to | 13 December 1963 |
The Specific Relief Act, 1963 is an Act of the Parliament of India which provides remedies for persons whose civil or contractual rights have been violated. It replaced an earlier Act of 1877. The following kinds of remedies may be granted by a court under the provisions of the Specific Relief Act:
The first chapter provides relief to those who have been dispossessed of their property. [1] —Nair Services Society Vs. K C Alexander [All India Reporter] AIR Year of Judgment-1968 SC [Supreme Court of India] Page No.1165—No suit for dispossession against the government is maintainable under Specific Relief Act.
The base of almost all economic relations are made of contracts. Every profession is contract bound. Property, whether owned by businesses or individuals are locked up under contracts. For example, money in banks and other forms of investment are contractually bound. As a result, contracts constitute modern wealth. They are sacred per se. Moreover a particular contract is not an isolated transaction. Often it is a link in the chain of several contracts. A failure at one place could cause serious dislocation to economic and social life. Contracts, thus must be enforced. But awarding compensation to an injured person is the only way that the law of contract can enforce a contract. However, in many cases compensation fails to serve the economic purpose of a contract. For example, a hospital is interested in the fulfillment of its requirements and not in receiving compensation from a failed supplier. Thus there was a need for a remedy which would compel a defaulting contractor to actually perform his contract.
By law, many transactions are required to be in writing. Because of expediency, many more transactions are put into writing. A written transaction is called an instrument. An instrument is a result of negotiations. Sometimes, an instrument may fail to express the intention of the involved parties. Rectification of such an instrument may become necessary. Help towards parties who want to have their documents (which are mistakenly executed) rectified, is provided in Chapter III of the Specific Relief Act. Closely related with documents mistakenly executed, is the category of documents which are at a later point found to be void or which become void. These documents ought to be cancelled. Chapter V provides relief from such kinds of documents. Also, there is a category of contracts which, for some reason or the other (e.g. lack of free consent) can be deemed voidable by the party which consent was not free. This party has the right to have the contract rescinded. Relief by way of rescission is provided by Chapter IV of the Specific Relief Act.
There can be cases where the nature of the contract does not allow damages to likely serve any purpose nor admit to specific performance. In such cases, the court may have to restrain the party who threatens the breach, to the possible extent. For example, a person undertakes a contract to sing at a particular place and also undertakes not to sing anywhere else during the same period. In case the singer threatens breach, the court cannot force him to sing. The positive side of the bargain is not specifically enforceable. But the negative undertaking i.e. not to sing elsewhere, can be enforced by restraining him from singing elsewhere. When he is prevented from resorting to other openings, it may exert some pressure upon his mind and he may be persuaded to go ahead with the performance of his contract. This type of remedy is known as preventive relief. This is granted by issuing an order known as injunction. Injunction is an order issued upon the party concerned directing him/them to omit the performance of a particular duty or act. This is also known as a mandatory injunction. Such relief is granted under the provisions of Part III of the Act. [2]
This is the final matter which is taken care of by the Specific Relief Act. Sometimes it may happen, that a person who is entitled to some status or character or has a right in some property but is being denied the enjoyment of his right by other parties. Under Chapter VI of the Specific Relief Act, he is allowed to proceed against any person who is denying or is interested in denying him his right. Ushaben V. Bhagayalakshmi
In jurisdictions following the English common law system, equity is the body of law which was developed in the English Court of Chancery and which is now administered concurrently with the common law.
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A waiver is the voluntary relinquishment or surrender of some known right or privilege.
An assignment is a legal term used in the context of the law of contract and of property. In both instances, assignment is the process whereby a person, the assignor, transfers rights or benefits to another, the assignee. An assignment may not transfer a duty, burden or detriment without the express agreement of the assignee. The right or benefit being assigned may be a gift or it may be paid for with a contractual consideration such as money.
A legal remedy, also referred to as judicial relief or a judicial remedy, is the means with which a court of law, usually in the exercise of civil law jurisdiction, enforces a right, imposes a penalty, or makes another court order to impose its will in order to compensate for the harm of a wrongful act inflicted upon an individual.
In contract law, rescission is an equitable remedy which allows a contractual party to cancel the contract. Parties may rescind if they are the victims of a vitiating factor, such as misrepresentation, mistake, duress, or undue influence. Rescission is the unwinding of a transaction. This is done to bring the parties, as far as possible, back to the position in which they were before they entered into a contract.
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An arbitration award is a determination on the merits by an arbitration tribunal in an arbitration, and is analogous to a judgment in a court of law. It is referred to as an 'award' even where all of the claimant's claims fail, or the award is of a non-monetary nature.
English contract law is a body of law regulating contracts in England and Wales. With its roots in the lex mercatoria and the activism of the judiciary during the industrial revolution, it shares a heritage with countries across the Commonwealth, and to a lesser extent the United States. It is also experiencing gradual change because of the UK's membership of the European Union and international organisations like Unidroit. Any agreement that is enforceable in court is a contract. Because a contract is a voluntary obligation, in contrast to paying compensation for a tort and restitution to reverse unjust enrichment, English law places a high value on ensuring people have truly consented to the deals that bind them in court.
A contract is a legally binding document that recognizes and governs the rights and duties of the parties to the agreement. A contract is legally enforceable because it meets the requirements and approval of the law. A contract typically involves the exchange of goods, service, money, or promise of any of those. "Breach of contract", means that the law will have to award the injured party either the access to legal remedies such as damages or cancellation.
Attorney General v Blake[2000] UKHL 45, [2001] 1 AC 268 is a leading English contract law case on damages for breach of contract. It established that in some circumstances, where ordinary remedies are inadequate, restitutionary damages may be awarded.
Erlanger v New Sombrero Phosphate Co (1878) 3 App Cas 1218 is a landmark English contract law, restitution and UK company law case. It concerned rescission for misrepresentation and how the impossibility of counter restitution may be a bar to rescission. It is also an important illustration of how promoters of a company stand in a fiduciary relationship to subscribers.
Investors Compensation Scheme Ltd. v West Bromwich Building Society[1997] UKHL 28 is a frequently-cited English contract law case which laid down that a contextual approach must be taken to the interpretation of contracts.
Interpreting contracts in English law is an area of English contract law, which concerns how the courts decide what an agreement means. It is settled law that the process is based on the objective view of a reasonable person, given the context in which the contracting parties made their agreement. This approach marks a break with previous a more rigid modes of interpretation before the 1970s, where courts paid closer attention to the formal expression of the parties' intentions and took more of a literal view of what they had said.
In English law, a vitiating factor in the common law of contract is a factor that can affect the validity of a contract. The concept has been adopted in other common law jurisdictions, including the USA.
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The South African law of lease is an area of the legal system in South Africa which describes the rules applicable to a contract of lease. This is broadly defined as a synallagmatic contract between two parties, the lessor and the lessee, in terms of which one, the lessor, binds himself to give the other, the lessee, the temporary use and enjoyment of a thing, in whole or in part, or of his services or those of another person; the lessee, meanwhile, binds himself to pay a sum of money as compensation, or rent, for that use and enjoyment. The law of lease is often discussed as a counterpart to the law of sale.
Solle v Butcher [1950] 1 KB 671 is an English contract law case, concerning the right to have a contract declared voidable in equity. Denning LJ reaffirmed a class of "equitable mistakes" in his judgment, which enabled a claimant to avoid a contract. Denning LJ said,
... a contract will be set aside if the mistake of the one party has been induced by a material misrepresentation of the other, even though it was not fraudulent or fundamental; or if one party, knowing that the other is mistaken about the terms of an offer, or the identity of the person by whom it is made, lets him remain under his delusion and concludes a contract on the mistaken terms instead of pointing out the mistake.... A contract is also liable in equity to be set aside if the parties were under a common misapprehension either as to facts or as to their relative and respective rights, provided that the misapprehension was fundamental and that the party seeking to set it aside was not himself at fault.
The missives of sale, in Scots property law, are a series of formal letters between the two parties, the Buyer and the Seller, containing the contract of sale for the transfer of corporeal heritable property (land) in Scotland. The term 'land' in this article includes buildings and other structures upon land.