SALE OF GOODS ACT 1930
By-
AMIT BANSAL; MA in Economics
Faculty Member of G.S Lohia College
APPLICABILITY OF THE ACT
- This act extends to the whole of India, except the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
- This act came into force w.e.f. 1 July 1930.
- The ‘contract of sale’ includes both a sale as well as an agreement to sell.
- The word Indian was omitted in the title of the Act in 1963 (22 sept.)
- This Act does not deal with the sale of immovable property.
DEFINITIONS (Sec. 2)
Buyer – Sec 2 (1)
A person who buys or agrees to buy the goods.
Delivery Sec (2)
It means voluntary transfer of possession from one person to another.
Delivery State Sec 2(3)
Goods are said to be in delivered state, when they are in such state that the Buyer would be bound to take the delivery of them in accordance with the contract.
Documents of title to Goods 2(4)
A document of the title to goods may be described as any document used as proof of the possession or control of goods, authorizing or purporting to authorize, either by endorsement or by delivery, the possessor of the document to transfer or receive goods thereby represented.
Section 2(4) of the Sale of Goods Act, 1930 recognizes the following as documents of title to goods:
(i) Bill of lading,
(ii) Dock warrant,
(iii) Ware housekeeper’s certificate,
(iv) Wharfinger’s certificate,
(v) Railway receipt,
(vi) Multi – modal transport document,
(vii) Warrant or order for the delivery of goods
Goods – Sec 2 (7)
- Goods mean every kind of movable property.
- Other than actionable claims and money, and it includes.
- stock and shares, growing crops, grass and things attached to or forming part of land which are agreed to be severed before sale or under the contract of sale.
- You may notice that ‘money’ and ‘actionable claims’ have been expressly excluded from the term ‘goods. ‘Money’ means the legal tender. ‘Money’ does not include old coins and foreign currency.
- ‘Actionable claims’, like debts, are things which a person cannot make use of, but which can be claimed by him by means of a legal action.
Actionable claims cannot be sold or purchased like goods, they can only be assigned, as per the provisions of Transfer of property Act.
- Grass, growing crops, trees to be cut and their log wood to be delivered, malba of a building to be demolished, etc. are goods. Similarly, things like goodwill, copyright, trade mark, patents, water, gas, electricity are all goods and may be the subject matter of a contract of sale.
(Statutory declaration: The above notes have been compiled referring to Indian Contact Act, 1872 – Bare Act, elements of Mercantile Law by N.D.Kapoor and various websites. The above notes are reference and not exhaustive and students are advised to refer to the reference books to get a complete idea of the topic.)
