Specific Relief Act, 1963 · Chapter II: Specific Performance Of Contracts

Section 18 Specific Relief Act: Non-enforcement except with variation

Bare Act text

18. Non-enforcement except with variation.—Where a plaintiff seeks specific performance of a contract in writing, to which the defendant sets up a variation, the plaintiff cannot obtain the performance sought, except with the variation so set up, in the following cases, namely:—

(a) where by fraud, mistake of fact or mis-representation, the written contract of which performance is sought is in its terms or effect different from what the parties agreed to, or does not contain all the terms agreed to between the parties on the basis of which the defendant entered into the contact;

(b) where the object of the parties was to produce a certain legal result which the contract as framed is not calculated to produce;

Text of the Specific Relief Act, 1963 (Act No. 47 of 1963), as amended up to the Specific Relief (Amendment) Act, 2018. Source: India Code, Government of India.

In simple words

A plaintiff may seek specific performance of a written contract while the defendant sets up a variation. The plaintiff can then obtain performance only with that variation, in three cases. Under clause (a), fraud, mistake of fact or misrepresentation makes the contract differ from what was agreed. It may also omit terms on which the defendant contracted. Under clause (b), the parties meant to produce a legal result that the contract as framed does not produce. Under clause (c), the parties varied its terms after the contract was executed.