What will be the place for the performance of a promise, where no application is to be made and no place is fixed for performance? Please give example. What will be the time for the performance of the promise, where no application is to be made and no time is specified? Please clarify the legal provision.

Question: What will be the place for the performance of a promise, where no application is to be made and no place is fixed for performance? Please give example. What will be the time for the performance of the promise, where no application is to be made and no time is specified? Please clarify the legal provision. [MPJS 2018]

Find the answer to the mains question only on Legal Bites. [What will be the place for the performance of a promise, where no application is to be made and no place is fixed for performance? Please give example. What will be the time for the performance of the promise, where no application is to be made and no time is specified? Please clarify the legal provision.]

Answer

Time for performance – Section 46: “Where, by the contract, a promisor is to perform his promise without application by the promise, and no time for performance is specified, the engagement must be performed within a reasonable time.

Explanation: The question “what is a reasonable time” is, in each particular case, a question of fact.”

For example, ‘X’ promises to pay ‘Y’ Rs 50,000/- in cash at his office, within 2 months, as a repayment of the loan he had taken from ‘Y’. ‘X’ leaves for work at 9:00 in the morning which is when ‘Y’ returns home from his night shift job. As per the circumstances, the only time when ‘X’ and ‘Y’ can meet is at 9:00 in the morning. Hence, the time and place for the performance of the contract are 9:00 at X’s house.

This section proceeds upon the assumption that a contract not specifying the time of performance would not be bad for uncertainty. This section would not apply to cases where the promise has to apply to or call upon the promisor to perform the promise.

Reasonable time – where the defendants agreed to discharge a debt due by the plaintiff to a third party and in default to pay the plaintiff such damages as he might sustain, and no time was fixed for the performance of the obligation, it was held that the failure of the defendant to perform it for a period of three years amounted to a breach of contract, as that was sufficient time for a performance.

Where no application is to be made but the Place of Performance of Contract is not specified.

Section 49 creates a provision for a place for the performance of promise, where no application to be made and no place fixed for performance.

It states: “When a promise is to be performed without application by the promisee, and no place is fixed for the performance of it, it is the duty of the promisor to apply to the promisee to appoint a reasonable place for the performance of the promise, and to perform it at such place.”

Section 49 does not apply where the money is payable on demand and not ‘without application by the promisee’. The common-law rule is a reasonable rule and is in conformity with justice and equity as it recognizes the obligation of the debtor to pay his debt by going to his creditor and imposing this obligation only when there is no express contract to the contrary.

For example, A undertakes to deliver a thousand maunds of jute to S on a fixed day. ‘A’ must apply to ‘B’ to appoint a reasonable place for the purpose of receiving it and must deliver it to him at such place.

In applying the general rule regard must be had to the proper place at the time when the money is payable. Section 49 can only apply when there is no place fixed for the performance of the contract and when the promise is to be performed without the application of the promisee. Where the place is fixed, the rule can have no application. In the absence of stipulation, the general rule of English law is that the debtor must seek his creditor, e.g., he must pay the debt at a place where the creditor is living, provided he is within the jurisdiction.

If no place of performance of the contract is fixed by the contract and there is no evidence to show that the debtor applied to the creditor to appoint a reasonable place of performance, it is the duty of the debtor to pay where the creditor is. The rule in this section is that one which, it was intended should apply both to delivery of goods as well as payment of money.

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Law of Contract Mains Questions Series: Important Questions for Judiciary, APO & University Exams

1. Law of Contract Mains Questions Series Part-I
2. Law of Contract Mains Questions Series Part-II
3. Law of Contract Mains Questions Series Part-III
4. Law of Contract Mains Questions Series Part-IV
5. Law of Contract Mains Questions Series Part-V
6. Law of Contract Mains Questions Series Part-VI
7. Law of Contract Mains Questions Series Part-VII
8. Law of Contract Mains Questions Series Part-VIII
9. Law of Contract Mains Questions Series Part-IX
10. Law of Contract Mains Questions Series Part-X