Full physical source page · unreviewed extraction

The Indian Contract Act, 1872: page 45

The Indian Contract Act, 1872, India Code delivered snapshot 85a7a066098255c9, physical page 45. Unreviewed extraction.

Source: official India Code PDF · catalog record. Fetched 2026-10-19T23:06:49Z. SHA-256 85a7a066098255c93001d678aeaf483f91d3080918363c03b78d40c3eeb8b386.

Legal currency, territorial applicability and extraction fidelity are unverified. Catalog checksum/size differs from the delivered PDF; both identities are retained. Sections, state notes and footnotes share these physical pages. Compare the full original image.

Retained layout text

                                                         Illustrations
     (a)A instructs B, a merchant, to buy a ship for him. B employs a ship-surveyor of good reputation to choose a ship for A.
The surveyor makes the choice negligently and the ship turns out to be unseaworthy and is lost. B is not, but the surveyor is,
responsible to A.
    (b)A consigns goods to B, a merchant, for sale. B, in due course, employs an auctioneer in good credit to sell the goods of A,
and allows the auctioneer to receive the proceeds of the sale. The auctioneer afterwards becomes insolvent without having
accounted for the proceeds. B is not responsible to A for the proceeds.

                                                          Ratification
    196. Right of person as to acts done for him without his authority. Effect of ratification.—
Where acts are done by one person on behalf of another, but without his knowledge or authority, he may
elect to ratify or to disown such acts. If he ratify them, the same effects will follow as if they had been
performed by his authority.
     197.Ratification may be expressed or implied.—Ratification may be expressed or may be implied
in the conduct of the person on whose behalf the acts are done.
                                                         Illustrations
                                                                                    e
      (a)A, without authority, buys goods for B. Afterwards B sells them to C on his own account; B’s conduct implies a
ratification of the purchase made for him by A.
                                                                             od
      (b)A, without B’s authority, lends B’s money to C. Afterwards B accepts interest on the money from C. B’s conduct implies
a ratification of the loan.
                                                                      aC
   198.Knowledge requisite for valid ratification.—No valid ratification can be made by a person
                                                                di
whose knowledge of the facts of the case is materially defective.
                                                           In
   199.Effect of ratifying unauthorized act forming part of a transaction.—A person ratifying any
unauthorized act done on his behalf ratifies the whole of the transaction of which such act formed a part.
    200.Ratification of unauthorized act cannot injure third person.—An act done by one person on
behalf of another, without such other person’s authority, which, if done with authority, would have the
effect of subjecting a third person to damages, or of terminating any right or interest of a third person,
cannot, by ratification, be made to have such effect.
                                                         Illustrations
     (a)A, not being authorized thereto by B, demands, on behalf of B, the delivery of a chattel, the property of B, from C, who is
in possession of it. This demand cannot be ratified by B, so as to make C liable for damages for his refusal to deliver.
    (b)A holds a lease from B, terminable on three months’ notice. C, an unauthorized person, gives notice of termination to A.
The notice cannot be ratified by B, so as to be binding on A.

                                                  Revocation of Authority
    201. Termination of agency.—An agency is terminated by the principal revoking his authority; or
by the agent renouncing the business of the agency; or by the business of the agency being completed; or
by either the principal or agent dying or becoming of unsound mind; or by the principal being adjudicated
an insolvent under the provisions of any Act for the time being in force for the relief of insolvent debtors.
    202.Termination of agency, where agent has an interest in subject-matter.—Where the agent has
himself an interest in the property which forms the subject-matter of the agency, the agency cannot, in the
absence of an express contract, be terminated to the prejudice of such interest.
                                                         Illustrations
    (a) A gives authority to B to sell A’s land, and to pay himself, out of the proceeds, the debts due to him from A. A cannot
revoke this authority, nor can it be terminated by his insanity or death.



                                                               45

Compare original page image