The document discusses specific performance of contracts under Sections 21 and 22 of the Specific Relief Act 1877. Section 21 lists 8 types of contracts that cannot be specifically enforced, such as contracts where monetary damages are sufficient compensation, contracts that are too vague, or contracts exceeding the powers of trustees. Section 22 gives courts discretion to determine whether specific performance is appropriate based on judicial principles in each case, rather than being obligated to grant it.

2. DEPARTMENT:LAW & SHARIA
TOPIC: SECTION 21, 22

3. THE SPECIFIC RELIEF ACT 1877

4. DEFINITION
CONTRACTS WHICH CANNOT BE
SPECIFICALLY ENFORCED.
SECTION: 21
contracts not specifically enforced:
the following contracts cannot be specifically
enforced_
a) A contract for the non performance of which
compensation in money is an adequate relief;

5. SECTION:21
 ILLUSTRATION:
A contracts to sell and B contracts to buy, a lakh of
rupees in the four percent loan of the central
government.
A contracts to sell and B contracts to buy, 40 chests
of indigo at Rs 1000 per chest.
b) A contract which runs into such minute or numerous
details, or which is so defendant on the personal
qualification or volition of the parties or otherwise
from its nature is such , that the court cannot enforce
specific performance of its material terms;

6. SECTION:21
c) A contracts the terms of which the court cannot find
with reasonable certainty;
ILLUSTRATION:
A, the owner of a refreshment room, contracts with B to
give him accommodation there for the sale of his
goods and to furnish him with the necessary
appliances. A refuses to perform his contract. The case
is one for compensation and not for specific
performance, the amount and nature of the
accommodation and appliances being undefined.

7. SECTION:21
d) A contract which is in its nature revocable;
ILLUSTRATION:
A and B contract to become partners in a certain
business, the contract not specifying the duration of
the proposed partnership. This contract cannot be
specifying performed for, if it were so performed,
either A or B might at once dissolve the partnership.

8. SECTION:21
e) A contract made by trustees either in excess of their
powers or in breach of their trust:
ILLUSTRATION:
A is a trustee of a land with power to lease it for seven
years. He enters into a contract with B to grant a lease
of the land for seven years, with a covenant to renew
the lease at the expiry of the term. This contract
cannot be specifically enforced.

9. SECTION:21
f) A contract made by or on behalf of a corporation or
public company created for special purposes, by the
promoters of such company, which is in excess of its
powers:
ILLUSTRATION:
A company existing for the sole purpose of making
and working a railway contract for the purchase of a
piece of land for the purpose of erecting a cotton mill
thereon. This contract cannot be specifically enforced.

10. SECTION:21
g) A contract the performance of which involves the
performance of a continuous duty extending over a
longer period than three years from its date;
ILLUSTRATION:
A contracts to let for twenty one years to B the right to
use such part of a certain railway made by A as was
upon B’s land, and that B should have a right of running
carriages over the whole line on certain terms, and
might require A to supply the necessary engine power,
and that A should during the term keep the whole
railway in good repair . Specific performance of this
contract must be refused to B.

11. SECTION:21
h) A contract of which a material part of the subject
matter, supposed by both parties to exist, has before it
has been made, ceased to exist.
ILLUSTRATION:
A contracts to pay an annuity to B for lives of C and D.
it turns out that, at the date of the contract, C though
supposed by A and B to be alive, was dead. The
contract cannot be specifically performed.

12. SECTION: 22
OF THE DISCRETION OF THE COURT
SECTION:22
Discretion as to decreeing specific performance:
the jurisdiction to decree specific performance is
discretionary, and the court is not bound to grant such
relief merely because it is lawful to do so; but the
discretion of the court is not arbitrary but sound and
reasonable, guided by judicial principles and capable
of correction by a court of appeal.

13. COMMENTS
 DISCRETION:
To decree any suit as provided by section 22, specific
performance was discretionary and court were not
bound to grant the relief merely because , it was
lawful.
The grant of specific performance is absolutely within
the court’s discretion which is to be exercised judicially
depending on the circumstances of each case and no
rigid rule as to when and where discretion is to be
exercised can be laid down. the court has discretion to
refuse even lawful specific performance.

14. COMMENTS
Where the defendant himself commits breach of
contract it is not obligatory on the plaintiff to prove his
willingness to perform his part of the contract up to
the date of the filing of the suit. The plaintiff would be
absolved from showing that he was ready and willing
to perform his part of the contract where the
defendant has committed breach thereof.
Discretion is not to be exercised arbitrary but in the
manner guided by judicial principles.
Specific performance is an equitable relief. It is not
granted as a matter of course but is discretion of court.

15. COMMENTS
 Court not bound to grant relief:
cases falling under this section are those in which it
would be lawful to grant specific performance, but in
which from special circumstances. On the ground on
which the courts often in the exercise of their
discretion refuse to give relief to the plaintiff . specific
relief is a relief which a court will not give unless where
the parties seeking it come promptly and as soon as
nature of the case will permitt.

16. COMMENTS
I. The following of the cases in which the court may
properly exercise a discretion not to decree specific
performance.
where the circumstances under which the contract is
made are such as to give the plaintiff an unfair
advantage over the defendant, though there may be
no fraud or misrepresentation on the plaintiff’s part.

17. COMMENTS
ILLUSTRATION:
A contracts to sell and B contracts to buy certain land
to protect the land from floods. It is necessary for its
owner to maintain an expensive embankment. B does
not know of this circumstances and A conceals it from
him. Specific performance of the contract should be
refused to A.

18. COMMENTS
2) Where the performance of the contract would involve
some hardship on the defendant which he did not
for see whereas its non performance would involve
no such hardship on the plaintiff.
ILLUSTRATION:
A is the owner of the estate to sell to B and stipulates
that he , A shall not be obliged its boundary. The
estate really comprises a valuable property not
known to either to be part of it. Specific
performance of the contract should be refused to B
unless he waives his claims to unknown property.

19. COMMENTS
3) Where the plaintiff has done substantial acts or
suffered losses in consequence of a contract capable of
specific performance. This para ( 3) is based on the
general principle that an agreement is performed in
part, court of equity has to do its best to carry out that
agreement by a decree of or specific performance. A
court will not act under this clause unless it has
jurisdiction in the original subject matter of the
contract.

20. COMMENTS
 ILLUSTRATION:
this clause covers such railway cases where the
defendant railway company has taken possession of
the land under the contract and the plaintiff has
performed his part under the contract by parting with
the land and he has himself no opportunity of doing
the works which the railway company has contracted
to do. Specific performance is in such cases the only
proper remedy for it is not possible to ascertain
damages.