Defences in Suits for Relief Based on Contract

In one line

Section 9 is the hinge between this Module and the first three: whatever a defendant could have said against a claim on the contract, he may say against a claim for specific performance of it.

In the words a student can write in an exam: section 9 of the Specific Relief Act 1963 provides that "Except as otherwise provided herein where any relief is claimed under this Chapter in respect of a contract, the person against whom the relief is claimed may plead by way of defence any ground which is available to him under any law relating to contracts."

Why the section is needed

A claim for specific performance is a claim on a contract, and a contract can be attacked in every way Modules I to III describe. Without section 9 there would be an argument that this Chapter is a self contained code, so that only the defences it names, principally sections 11(2), 14, 16, 17 and 18, are open.

Section 9 forecloses that argument. It makes the whole of the general law of contract available as a defence, and section 2(e) of this Act, which imports the Contract Act's definitions, is what makes the two fit together.

The practical value: a defendant in a specific performance suit does not have to find his defence inside the Specific Relief Act. He may say there was no contract at all.

The provision itself

"Except as otherwise provided herein where any relief is claimed under this Chapter in respect of a contract, the person against whom the relief is claimed may plead by way of defence any ground which is available to him under any law relating to contracts."

Three things to notice in the wording.

"Under this Chapter" means Chapter II, on specific performance of contracts.

"Any law relating to contracts" is wider than the Indian Contract Act 1872. It takes in the Transfer of Property Act 1882, the Sale of Goods Act 1930, the Registration Act 1908, the Indian Stamp Act 1899 and any other statute bearing on the contract.

"Except as otherwise provided herein" preserves the Act's own limits, so section 9 does not let a defendant escape a rule this Act imposes on him, such as section 19(b), which makes specific performance enforceable against a transferee who did not take for value in good faith and without notice.

The defences it lets in

The checklist below is the whole of Modules I to III turned into a defence, and it is what an answer on section 9 should set out.

No contract at all.

• No proposal or acceptance, or no consensus ad idem, sections 2 and 13 of the Contract Act.
• No consideration, section 25.
• No intention to create legal relations.
• Uncertainty, section 29.