Report No. 20
9. Right of hirer to terminate agreement at any time.-
(1) The hirer may, at any time before the final payment under the hire-purchase agreement falls due, and after giving not less than fourteen days' notice in writing of his intention so to do and re-delivering the goods to the owner or tendering them to the owner, terminate the hire-purchase agreement by payment or tender to the owner of the amounts which have accrued due towards the hire-purchase price and have not been paid by him, including the sum, if any, which he is liable to pay under sub-section (2).
[Contrast section 4(1), H.P.A., 1938]
(2) Where the hirer terminates the agreement under sub-section (1), and the agreement provides for the payment of a sum named on account of such termination, the liability of the hirer to pay that sum shall be subject to the following conditions:-
(a) where the total of the sums paid and the sums due in respect of the hire-purchase price immediately before the termination exceeds one-half of the hire-purchase price, the hirer shall not be liable to pay the sum so named;
(b) where the total of the sums paid and the sums due in respect of the hire-purchase price immediately before the termination does not exceed one-half of the hire-purchase price, the hirer shall be liable to pay the difference between the said total and the said one-half, or such less sum as may be named in the agreement;
(c) nothing in this sub-section shall prejudice any liability of the hirer for any hire which might have accrued due before the termination.
(3) Any provision in any agreement, where by the right conferred on a hirer by this section to terminate the hire-purchase agreement is excluded or restricted, or whereby any liability in addition to the liability imposed by this Act is imposed on a hirer by reason of the termination of the hire-purchase agreement by him under this section, shall be void.1
[Cf. section 85(b), H.P.A., 7938]
(4) Nothing in this section shall prejudice any right of a hirer to terminate a hire-purchase agreement otherwise than by virtue of this section.
1. Sections 5(a), [prohibition against entry by owner etc.], 5(d) [nullifying any provision whereby a person acting on behalf of the owner is treated as hirer's agent] and 5(e) [nullifying any provision relieving an owner from liability for the acts of his agent etc.] of the H.P.A., 1938, have been omitted, as such elaborate provisions appear to be unnecessary in India.
Section 5(c) of the H.P.A., 1938, in effect extends the beneficial provisions to termination of the agreement by any mode. This has been regarded as too wide and has, therefore, been omitted.
[Cf. sections 4(4) and 4(1), H.P.A., 1938]
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