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Section 55 -The Indian Contract Act, 1872

The Indian Contract Act, 1872

 

55. Effect of failure to perform a fixed time, in contract in which time is essential 

 

When a party to a contract promises to do a certain thing at or before a specified time, or certain thins at or before a specified time and fails to do such thing at or before a specified time, and fails to do such thing at or before a specified time, the contract or so much of it as has not been performed, becomes voidable at the option of the promisee, if the intention of the parties was that time should be of essence of the contract.

Effect of such failure when time is not essential: If it was not the intention of the parties that time should be of the essence of the contract, the contract does not become voidable by the failure to do such thing at or before the specified time; but the promisee is entitled to compensation from the promisor for any loss occasioned to him by such failure.

 

Effect of acceptance of performance at time other than agreed upon: If, in case of a contract voidable on account of the promisor’s failure to perform his promise at the time agreed, the promisee accepts performance of such promise at any time other than agree, the promisee cannot claim compensation of any loss occasioned by the non-performance of the promise at the time agreed, unless, at the time of acceptance, he give notice to the promisor of his intention to do so.1

 

COMMENTS

 

Time – whether essence of Contract

 

The parties, may make time of the essence either expressly in terms which unmistakably provide that they intended to do so. Alternately, making of time as the essence of a contract may be inferred from the nature of the contract, the property or the surrounding circumstances; Swarnam Ramchandran v. Aravacode Chakungal Jayapalan, AIR 2000 Bom 410.

 

When the contract itself provides for extension of time, the same cannot be termed to be the essence of the contract and default, however, in such a case it does not make the contract voidable; Arosan Enterprises Ltd. v. Union of India, AIR 1999 SC 3804.

 

The deferred clause indicated that time was not the essence of the contract. But in the present case the defendants had kept quite for an unreasonably long time so the defendants cannot rely on this clause but the plaintiffs can seek the relief of possession prayed for; Y.A. Kader v. Muthulakshmi Ammal, AIR 1992 Mad 208.

 

In a contract for the sale of land or immovable property, it would normally be presumed that time was not of the essence of the contract; Gomathinayagam Pillai v. Palaniswami Nadar, AIR 1967 SC 868: (1967) 1 SCR 227.

 

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1. Cf. sections 62 and 63, infra.

 

 

 

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The Indian Contract Act, 1872

 

 

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