Bare Act Search Results

Usurious Loans Act, 1918 Complete Act

State: Central

Year: 1918

.....rates. This subject has engaged the attention of the Government of India frequently in the past and in 1899 sections 16and19 of the Indian Contract Act. 1872, were amended so as to enunciate more clearly the principle on which a contract can be avoided on the ground of undue influence. Those amendments had' the effect of conferring on the Courts in India equitable jurisdiction in cases relating to usurious contracts in which the element of undue influence is established, but where undue influence cannot be established the result has been to emphasize the rigidity of section 2 of the Usury Laws Repeal Act (XXVIII of 1855), however exorbitant the demand, and however unconscionable the bargain. Further there has been a tendency on the part of the Courts to place upon the word "unconscionable" in section 16 of the Indian Contract Act the, technical meaning which it has acquired in English equity, and consequently to limit their own powers of interference. Lastly the particular transaction before the Court is often merely one of a series and unless there is power to go behind it and examined antecedent agreements and attendant circumstances there is little hope of the Courts.....