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CHAPTER II OF NOTES, BILLSAND CHEQUES

Section 20: Inchoate stamped instruments

The Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881

Where one person signs and delivers to another a paper stamped in accordance with the law relating to negotiable instruments then in force in 1[India], and either wholly blank or having written thereon an incomplete negotiable instrument, he thereby gives prima facie authority to the holder thereof to make or complete, as the case may be, upon it a negotiable instrument, for any amount specified therein and not exceeding the amount covered by the stamp. The person so signing shall be liable upon such instrument, in the capacity in which he signed the same, to any holder in due course for such amount: provided that no person other than a holder in due course shall recover from the person delivering the instrument anything in excess of the amount intended by him to be paid thereunder.

Footnotes in the official text

  1. 1.Subs. by Act 3 of 1951, s. 3 and the Sch., for “the States”.

Questions on this section

1 question in 1 of our papers cite Section 20. Try these from the free papers:

  1. 1. A signs and delivers to B a stamped paper, otherwise wholly blank, intending that B should complete it as a promissory note for Rs. 5,000. The stamp is sufficient to cover an amount up to Rs. 10,000. B completes it as a note for Rs. 8,000 payable to himself and sues A on it. B is not a holder in due course. Under Section 20 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, B can recover from A:

Practise questions on Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881