Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
Thus, it will be noticed that Section 19-A also declares a contract brought about by undue
influencevoidable at the option of the aggrieved party, just as section 19 so declares. In case of
a contract brought about by coercion, misrepresentation or fraud, the special feature of Section 19, is
that while in the case of rescission of a contract procured by coercion, misrepresentation or fraud, any
benefit received by the aggrieved party has to be restored under Section 64 of the Contract Act;
under Section19A, if a contract procured by undue influence is set aside, the Court has discretion to
direct the aggrieved party forrefunding the benefit whether in whole or in part or set aside the
contract without any direction for refund of benefit.
(ii) Undue influence by a person, who is not a party to the contract, may make the contract voidable
in other words, it is not necessary that the person in a position to dominate the will of the other
party use himself be benefited. It is sufficient If the third person m whom he is interested
isbenefited (Chirmamma vs Devenga Sangha).
Unfair or unreasonable bargains belong to the category of unconscionable transactions. These are
such transactions where as between two con-tracting parties, one is in a dominant position and
makes an exorbitant profit of the others distress -
High rate of interest.
Unconscionable bargains take place mostly in money lending transactions where moneylenders
charge high rates of interest from needy borrower. The presumption of undue influence on the
ground of high rate of interest is raised only when the following two things are proved:
1. That the moneylender was in a position to dominate the will of the borrower, and
2. That the bargain is unreasonable i.e., rate of interest is excessive without any valid
reason.
In such cases the law presumes that consent must have been obtained by undue influence and the
burden of proving that there was no undue influence lies on the creditor. It must be noted that both
the above conditions must be proved for giving rise to a presumption of undue influence. There
will be no presumption of undue influence and a transaction will not be set aside on ground of
undue influence, merely because the rate of interest is high if both the parties are, on equal
footing (i.e. none of the parties is in a position to dominate the, will of the other party) or if there
exists valid reason (like tight market conditions) for charging high rate of interest
Illustrations
(a) A being in debt ,to B, the moneylender of his village, -contract a fresh loan on terms which appear
to be unconscionable. It .lies on B to prove that the ‘contract was not induced by undue influence
[Illustration (c) to Section 16].
(b) A poor Hindu widow borrowed Rs 1,500 ;from a moneylender at 100 per cent per annum rate of
interest for the purpose of enabling her to establish her right to maintenance. It lies on the
moneylender to prove that there was no undue influ-ence (Rannee Annapurni vs Swaminatha).