Salient Features Of The Specific Relief (Amendment) Act, 2017

Recently, Specific Relief Act, 1963 ("the Act") underwent valiant changes in order to cater to augmented contractual transactions inter-se parties and disputes arising therein. The Act was enacted to define the law relating to specific performance of contracts and conferred discretionary powers upon the concerned Courts in India to grant a relief of specific performance of a contract. As a result of the discretionary powers, the Courts in majority of cases awarded damages as a general rule and granted specific performance as an exception. Recently, it was felt that the Act is not in tune with the rapid economic growth and expansion of infrastructure activities in the country. Consequently, the Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill, 2017 ("the Amendment") was introduced by the Minister of Law and Justice, on December 22, 2017. The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on March 15, 2018 and subsequently passed by the Rajya Sabha on July 23, 2018. The significant features of this