Rahul Kankariya
Advocate, LexCrux
We all are aware of the COVID-19 outbreak and the way it has adversely affected human lives around the world. To prevent its further spread, various countries of the world have taken various precautionary measures. One such measure is the ‘lockdown’ wherein all business and economic activities are suspended temporarily, although for an indefinite period of time. Though such lockdown does help in preventing the further spread of virus and save lives but they do have a negative impact on the economy of a nation. Since all commercial activities except for essentials are suspended, the economy of the entire nation gets negatively affected. In this article we would be discussing COVID-19 and its impact on performance of contracts. The discussion is streamlined in context of two types of contracts, (i) Contracts that are regulated by the provisions of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (“RERA Act 2016”) along with the provisions of the Indian Contract Act 1872; (ii) Contracts that are regulated only by the provisions of the Indian Contract Act 1872, and as per mutually agreed terms by the parties i.e. purely contractual domain contracts. It is also pertinent to see whether these Acts and contracts entered into between the parties provide for any provision of force majeure or act of god. However before proceeding with the discussion it is important for us to understand few terminologies and statutory provisions that are involved in this discussion.
Keywords: Covid19, Coronavirus, Force majeure, Contract, RERA
Preferred Citation: