13 note 3 for 11 A. & E. 213 read 11 Ad. & E., 213.

14 to note 1, add Manick Churd v. Jomoona Doss, I. L. R., 8 Cal., 645.

15 in note 4 for L. R. 2 H. L. 143, read L. R. 2. H. L., 127.

16 to note 1, add Muttu Chetti v. Muttan Chetti, I. L. R., 4 Mad., 296.

20 to line 17 from bottom of page, add as a reference Carlon v. Kinealy, 12 M.

26 in line 15 from top for 7, read 61.

51 in side note to s. 24 for "months," read "days."

48 in note 2 after 3 E. & B. 549, add S. C. 23 L J. (Q. B.,) 293.

54 after note 2 in line 7 from top, insert, these two statutes are repealed by 45 & 46 Vict. c. 75.

56 in note 4 after Bankruptcy Court, insert but see Lynch, ex-parte, 2 Ch. D., 227.

59 in note 3 for 3 B. & A. 1, read 3 B. & Ad., 1.

61 in note 2 for 5 C. B. 563, read 5 C. B., 583.

96 in note 3 after at p. 639, add S. C. 29 W. R. (Q. B. D.,) 458.

101 to note 2, add Commundeen Mohideen Saib v. Oree Meerah Saib, 7 M. H.

C. R. 275; Van Ingen v. Dhunna Lall, I. L. R. 5 Mad- 108.

103 to note 1, add S. C. 37 L. J. (Q. B.) 41.

110 in note 5 for 5 C. B. (N. S.) 214, read 9 C. B. (N. S.,) 214.

140 in note 2 after S. C. 14 M. & W. 831, insert S. C. 19 L. J. (Ex.) 34.

143 in note 1 before T. R., insert 1.

147 to note 4, add S. C. 17 Suth. W. R., 442.

150 in note 3 after 2 Q. B. 388, add S. C. 11 L. J. (Q. B.) 121; 2 G. & D., 116.

THE

NEGOTIABLE INSTRUMENTS ACT,

1881.

An Act to define and amend the law relating to Promissory Notes, Bills of Exchange and Cheques. WHEREAS it is expedient to define and amend the Preamble. law relating to promissory notes, bills of exchange and cheques; It is hereby enacted as follows:

CHAPTER I.

PRELIMINARY.

1. This Act may be called "The Negotiable Short title. Instruments Act, 1881:"

usages relating to hundis, &c.

It extends to the whole of British India; but Local extent. nothing herein contained affects the Indian Paper Currency Act, 1871, section twenty-one, or affects Saving of any local usage relating to any instrument in an oriental language: Provided that such usages may be excluded by any words in the body of the instrument, which indicate an intention that the legal relations of the parties thereto shall be governed by this Act;

Commence.

ment.

and it shall come into force on the first day of March 1882.

This is a reservation of Sec. 92 prov. (5) of the Evidence Act I of 1872, whereby any usage or custom by which incidents, not expressly mentioned, in a contract are usually annexed to contracts of that description may be proved. The Proviso would seem to relate to express contracts, and of course all instruments in any European language will come within the provisions of the Act.

Nothing in the Transfer of Property Act (IV of 1882, Sec. 139) is applicable to negotiable instruments.

The following is a lucid account of what a hundi is, and points out in clear language in what it differs from a bill of exchangeit is taken from a Judgment of Arnould J., in the Bombay High Court. "The documents on which the moneys were sought to "be recovered in the suit were paid, were hundis made payable "to Shah Shah Jogi and such hundis differ from bills of exchange "in one very material circumstance, amongst others, that, as a

general rule, the acceptance of the drawee is not written across "them, so as thereby to give them an additional degree of mer"cantile credit, and to that extent to make it just to impose an "additional degree of liability on the acceptor; but as a rule the σε particulars are only entered in the drawee's books. It may be "added also as a general rule, that hundis are very frequently "not presented for acceptance, before they are presented for payment, that is before they are either due or over-due."

The general process is this :-" The Shah' or person who has <6 bought or holds the hundi, and whose name must always be in"dorsed on it before it is presented, sends one of his men to the shop of the drawee, whose Killidar, after referring to the par"ticulars of advices relating to the hundi, which have in due σε course been previously entered in the Chitti nond, or bill book, "and finding it correspond therewith, thereupon enters in the

1 Shah means responsible, respectable: a man of worth and substance, known in the bazaar. A hundi payable to Shah is paid on the responsibility of the Shah, Davlatram v. Bulakidas, 6 Bom, H. C. R., at p. 28.

Foog Jogi is equivalent to payee, the person who has the right to be paid; Thakar Das v. Futteh Mull, 7 Beng. L. R. at

p. 302.