Report No. 168

2.3. Obligation of owner to supply copies and information.-

(1) It shall also be the duty of the owner to supply, free of cost, a true copy of the hire-purchase agreement, signed by the owner,-

(a) to the hirer, immediately after execution of the agreement; and

(b) where there is a contract of guarantee, to the surety, on demand made at any time before the final payment has been made under the agreement.

(2) It shall also be the duty of the owner, at anytime before the final payment has been made under the hire-purchase agreement, to supply to the hirer, within fourteen days after the owner receives a request in writing from the hirer in this behalf and the hirer tenders to the owner the sum of ten rupees for expenses, a statement signed by the owner or his agent showing-

(a) the amount paid by or on behalf of the hirer;

(b) the amount which has become due under the agreement but remains unpaid, and the date upon which each unpaid instalment became due, and the amount of each such instalment; and

(c) the amount which is to become payable under the agreement, and the date or the mode of determining the date upon which each future instalment is to become payable, and the amount of each such instalment.

(3) Where there is a failure without reasonable cause to carry out the duties imposed by sub-section (1), or sub-section (2), then while the default continues,-

(a) the owner shall not be entitled to enforce the agreement against the hirer or to enforce any contract of guarantee relating to the agreement, or to enforce any right to recover the goods from the hirer; and

(b) no security given by the hirer in respect of money payable under the agreement or given by a surety in respect of money payable under such a contract of guarantee as aforesaid shall be enforceable against the hirer or the surety by any holder thereof, and, if the default continues for a period of two months, the owner shall be punishable with fine which may extend to two hundred rupees.

(4) Nothing in sub-section (3) shall be construed as affecting the right of a third-party to enforce against the owner or hirer or against both the owner and the hirer any charge or encumbrance to which the goods covered by the hire-purchase agreement are subject.