(4) Where a contract contains a variety of stipulations some of a certain nature and amount as for instance for the payment of a lesser sum of money and some of an uncertain nature and amount and one large sum is stated at the end to be payable in the event of a breach of performance of any of them that sum is to be considered in the nature of a penalty ; for as it cannot be regarded as liquidated [...] The fact that the stipulations are of different degrees of importance is not of itself suffi- cient to show that the sum payable is a penalty except where some of the stipulations are of such a character that the damages which can possibly arise from a breach of any of them would be very insignificant compared with the sum fixed by the parties. [...] It was held that the imposition of interest on default of the payment of an instalment, even though that interest is only to be reck- oned from the date of the failure, nevertheless must be regarded as penal, because it does not provide for a further obligation on the part of the debtor, by reason of his failure to fulfil his contract to pay the instalment on the prescri- bed date. [...] But the Court has power to reduce the compensation mentioned in the agree- ment of the parties. " We have seen by this time enough of the views of eminent Judges of various High Courts on the word 'penalty,' the illustrations from (d) to (g), and the Ex- planation, but in every case one finds that the power of Court given by the following words in the illustrations 'as the Court considers reasonab [...] The definition says that the attestation must be by two or more witnesses each of whom has seen the executant sign or affix his mark to the in- strument or has seen some other person sign the instrument and each of whom has signed the instrument in the presence of the executant We can at once note that while des- cribing the functions of the executant in the act of valid execution the legislature
- Pages
- 213
- Published in
- India
- SARF Document ID
- sarf.100041
