Obligation, an act which binds a person to some performance; also a bond containing a penalty, with a condition annexed for paying of money at a certain time, or for the performance of a covenant, etc.; also foreign government and other bonds and debentures.
In Bhudeb Mookerjee v. Kalachand Malik, 34 Cal LJ 315: AIR 1921 Cal 129, that the word obligation in s. 54 of the Specific Relief Act may be taken to be a tie or bond which constrains a person to do or suffer something. It implies a right in another person to which it is correlated and it restricts the freedom of the obligee with respect to definite acts and forbearances but in order that it may be enforced by a court, it must be a legal obligation and not merely moral, social or religious, Hyderabad Stock Exchange Ltd. v. Rangnath Rathi and Co., AIR 1958 AP 43 (47). [Specific Relief Act, 1877, s. 54]
Means 'a duty; the bond of legal necessity which binds together two or more determinate individuals. It is limited to legal duties arising out of special personal relationship existing, whether by reason of a contract or a tort, or otherwise between two or more individual persons, State of West Bengal v. Iswar Damodar Jew, AIR 1976 Cal 46 (50). [W.B. Estates Acquisition Act, 1954, s. 6(1)(1)]
It includes every duty enforceable by law. [Specific Relief Act, 1963 (47 of 1963), s. 2(a)]
Obligation of person making arrest to inform about the arrest, etc., to a nominated person. [Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974) s. 50A. See also Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Act, 2005 (25 of 2005), s. 7]
It binds a person by oath or contract to do or retrain from doing something. [(English) Rent Act, 1977 (C 42) s. 3(1)]
In its popular sense is merely a synonym for duty. Its legal sense, derived from Roman law, differs from this in several respects. In the first place, obligations are merely one class of duties, namely, those which are the correlatives of rights in personam. An obligation is the vinculum juris, or bond of legal necessity, which binds together two or more determinate individuals ........ Secondly, the term obligation is in law the name, not merely of the duty, but also of the correlative right. It denotes the legal relation or vinculum juris in its entirely including the right of the one party, no less that the liability of the order, looked at from the point of view of the person entitled, an obligation is a right, is a duty ....... An obligation, therefore, may be defined as a proprietary right in personam or a duty which corresponds to such a right, Jurisprudence [Glanville L. Williams (Editor), 10 Edn., 1947].
It means a duty, the bond of legal necessity which binds together two or more determinate individuals. It is limited to legal duties arising out of special personal relationship existing whether by reason of a contract or tort or otherwise between two or more individual persons, State of West Bengal v. Ishwar Damodar Jew, 1976 Cal 46.