NI Act Section 20: Inchoate stamped instruments

Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 · Chapter 2: Of notes, bills and cheques

Also available in: हिंदी

Where one person signs and delivers to another a paper stamped in accordance with the law relating to negotiable instruments then in force in [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.

NI Act: original English/Hindi guides →

Official reference: India Code, Government of India — official section HTML — source review: 5 October 2026.Recorded edition / snapshot date: 2026-10-05.Banaka reference transcription of the official HTML snapshot; not an official or certified edition. Source wording and amendment brackets are retained; layout and footnote callouts are omitted. The recorded date is the review snapshot, not a separately dated consolidation. Hindi guides are original explanations. Read the source amendment notes and current judicial interpretation alongside the text. The historical schedule and section 2 are repealed.Read the original schedule and amendment notes

This text is for reference, not legal advice. Consult the official source for the authoritative text.

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