Hire-purchase system. A system whereby the owner of goods lets them on hire for periodic payments by the hirer upon an agreement that when a certain number of payments have been completed, the absolute property in the goods will pass to the hirer, but so that the hirer may return the goods at any time without any obligation to pay any balance of rent accruing after return, until the conditions have been fulfilled, the property remains in the owner. The instrument by which the hire-purchase is effected does not ordinarily require registration under the Bills of Sale Acts [Ex parte Crawcour, (1878) 9 Ch D 419]; and the hirer is 'reputed owner' within the Bankruptcy Act [Ex parte Brooks, (1993) 23 Ch D 261]; but the hirer does not 'agree to buy' within the Factors Act or Sale of Goods Act so as to be able to sell or pledge the goods as if he were a 'mercantile agent', Helby v. Matthews, 1895 AC 471; Brooks v. Biernstein, (1909) 1 KB 98. Distinguish from agreements such as in Lee v. Butler...
Licence and lease, A licence confers a right to do or continue to do something in or upon immovable property of grantor which but for the grant of the right may be unlawful, but it creates no estate or interest in the immovable property of the grantor. A lease on the other hand creates an interest in the property demised, Sohan Lal Naraindas v. Laxmidas RaghunathGadit, (1971) 1 SCC 276: (1971) 3 SCR 319[ Transfer of Property Act, 1882, s. 105]A tenant protected by a statute is entitled to create a licence. The licence is not an interest in property. It is purely a personal right, Chandavarkar Sita Ratna Rao v. Ashalata S. Guram, AIR 1987 SC 117 (132): (1986) 4 SCC 447.Means a licence granted under section 15 to use the Indian Standards Certification Mark in relation to any article or process which conforms to the Indian Standard and includes any licence granted under the Indian Standards Institution (Certification Marks) Act, 1952 and is in force immediately before the date of establis...
Nature, according to Collins English Dictionary means all natural phenomena and plant and animal life as distinct from man and his creations; a wild primitive state untouched by man or civilization, Bhavani Tea and Produce Co. Ltd. v. State of Kerala, (1991) 2 SCC 463 (481). [S. 18(1), prov. C.P.C.] 2. Kind, Order [S. 96(1)(f), E.S.I. Act] 3. Character [S. 13(4)(g), C.S.I. Act.]...
Negotiable instruments, those the right of action upon which is, by exception from the common rule, freely assignable from one to another, such as bills of exchange and promissory notes. Any person acquiring a negotiable instrument for value and in good faith can enforce the contract contained in it against the person liable on it, although the person from whom he has obtained it had no title. See also CHOSE.Promissory notes were made negotiable by 3 & 4 Anne, c. 9. and 7 Anne, c. 25, and placed in all respects upon the same footing with inland bills of exchange. [s. 13(1), Negotiable Instrument Act]The (English) Bills of Exchange Act, 1882, contains the law as to negotiation of bills of exchange, promissory notes, and cheques. S. 31 declares that these instruments are negotiated when they are transferred from one person to another in such a manner as to constitute the transferee the holder of them, and s. 32 enumerates the conditions under which an indorsement may operate as a negotia...
Official duty, implies that the act or omission must have been done by the public servant in the course of his service and that it should have been in discharge of his duty, B. Saha v. M.S. Kochar, (1979) 4 SCC 177: 1979 SCC (Cri) 939.The use of the expression 'official duty' implies that the act or omission must have been done by the public servant in the course of his service and that it should have been in discharge of his duty. The section does not extend its protective cover to every act or omission done by a public servant in service but restricts its scope of operation to only those acts or omissions which are done by a public servant in discharge of official duty, S.K. Zutshi v. Bimal Debnath, (2004) 8 SCC 31(38); see also State of Orissa v. Ganesh Chandra Jain, (2004) 8 SCC 40. (Cr. P.C., 1973, s. 197)It implies that the act or omission must have been done by the public servant in the course of his service and that it should fall within scope of range of his official duty, Rak...
Options to purchase a legal estate (including a lease), made or acquired after 1925, must be registered in the Land Registry under ss. 4 and 10 of the (English) Land Charges Act, 1925, as ESTATE CONTRACTS (q.v.), or they will be void against a purchaser for value (with or without notice), for money or money's worth. They do not fall behind the curtain and must be abstracted as the person entitled may register at anytime before completion of the purchase by the later claimant. A tenant for life may grant an option for purchase or to take a lease exerciseable over any period not exceeding ten years [see (English) Settled Land Act, 1925, s. 51]. Attention should be given to the (English) Law of Property Act, 1925, s. 149(3), which prohibits the granting of a ease as a rent or upon payment of a fine after 1925 to take effect more than twenty-one years from the date of the instrument purporting to create in except in regard to terms or interests under a settlement or under equitable powers ...
Or, construed as 'and'. The courts may construe 'or' as 'and' if they find from the context that the wrong word must have been used, Morgan v. Thomas, (1882) 9 QBD 643 (645), per Jessel (MR).Or, in the sentence any 'any person concerned in any such offence shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding three times the value of the goods or not exceeding 1000 rupees.' It is clear that if the words form an affirmative sentence, then the condition of one of the clauses only need be fulfilled. In such a case 'or' really means 'either' 'or'. In the Shorter Oxford Dictionary one of the meanings of the word 'or' is given as 'A participle co-ordinating two (or more) words, phrases or clauses between which there is an alternative.' It is also there stated, 'The alternative expressed by 'or' is emphasised by prefixing to the first member or adding after the last, the associated adv. EITHER.' So, even without 'either', 'or' alone creates an alternative. If, however, the sentence is a negative one, th...
Patent medicine, A patent medicine means medicine in respect of which a patent is in force, Aphali Pharmaceuticals v. State of Maharashtra, AIR 1989 SC 2227 (2235): (1989) 4 SCC 2227.Patent or proprietary medicines are--(1) those enumerated in the schedule to the (English) Medicine Stamp Act, 1812; (2) all other medicines intended for human use and claimed to be made by a secret process or protected by letters-patent, or which have been advertised as beneficial to the prevention, cure, or relief of any ailment or disorder affecting the human body. Under the (English) Medicine Stamp Acts, 1802 and 1804, duties were imposed on each bottle or package according to the price. These duties are payable by the manufacturers and collected by means of labels of appropriate amounts, so affixed to the packages as to be destroyed when they are opened. The duties were doubled by the Finance Act, 1915: this increased rate has been continued from year to year. The schedule to the Act of 1812 exempts f...
Pawn or Pledge [fr. pignus, Lat.], a bailment of goods by a debtor to his creditor, to be kept till the debt is discharged.A mortgage of goods is in the Common Law distinguishable from a mere pledge or pawn. By a mortgage the whole legal title passes conditionally to the mortgagee; and if the goods be not redeemed at the stipulated time, the title becomes absolute at law although equity allows a redemption. But in a pledge, a special property only passes to the pledgee, the general property remaining in the pledgor. Also, in the case of a pledge, the right of a pledgee is not consummated, except by possession; and, ordinarily, when that possession is relinquished, the right of the pledgee is extinguished or waived. But, in the case of a mortgage of personal property the right of property passes by the conveyance to the mortgagee, and the possession is not or may not be essential to create or support the title.As to things which may be the subject of pawn: These are, ordinarily, goods a...
Penal Servitude, a punishment in the United King-dom which by the Penal Servitude Act, 1853, has superseded transportation (see that title) beyond the seas; but is in all respects as to hard labour, etc., similar to it. It ranges in duration from three years to the life of the convict.The (English) Criminal Law Consolidation Act of 1861 frequently authorise a minimum term of three years' penal servitude. This minimum of three years was altered to five by the (English) Penal Servitude Act, 1864, s. 2, but altered back to three by the (English) Penal Servitude Act, 1891, that very important Act providing as follows by s. 1:-(1) where under any enactment in force when this section comes into operation [5th Aug., 1891] a Court has power to award a sentence of penal servitude, the sentence may, at the discretion of the Court, be for any period not less than 3 years, and not exceeding either 5 years, or any greater period authorized by the enactment.(2) where under any Act now in force or un...