The Arthashastra, the ancient treatise on statecraft attributed to Kautilya, limits a merchant’s margin. In R. Shamasastry’s English translation: “The Superintendent of Commerce shall fix a profit of five per cent over and above the fixed price of local commodities, and ten per cent on foreign produce.”
Unequal Bargaining Power
On April 6, 1986, the Supreme Court decided Central Inland Water Transport Corporation v. Brojo Nath Ganguly. The case concerned a clause in the service rules of a government company that let it end an employee’s service. The Court held that courts will “strike down an unfair and unreasonable contract” “entered into between parties who are not equal in bargaining power.” Such a clause “ought, therefore, to be adjudged void under section 23” of the Contract Act.
The Court also defined the term: “An unconscionable bargain would, therefore, be one which is irreconcilable with what is right or reasonable.”
Fair, Equitable and Balanced
In 2025 India negotiated a trade agreement with the United States while most Indian goods faced American tariffs of 50 percent. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal kept to one formula. “We want a fair, equitable and balanced trade deal,” he said on November 11. A week later, at the Indo-US Economic Summit in Delhi, he said: “When the deal will become fair, equitable and balanced, you will hear good news.”
The Beauty of Compromise
“All my life through, the very insistence on truth has taught me to appreciate the beauty of compromise. I saw in later life that this spirit was an essential part of satyagraha.” Mahatma Gandhi wrote this in his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, in the part on his early years in South Africa.
Fairly and Transparently
The Tata Code of Conduct, in its 2015 version, sets rules for dealing with others. “Our conduct shall be fair and transparent and be perceived as fair and transparent by third parties.” On suppliers: “We shall select our suppliers and service providers fairly and transparently.” On customers: “Our dealings with our customers shall be professional, fair and transparent.”
Maximum Retail Price
Packaged goods in India must carry a printed maximum retail price, the MRP. The government made it mandatory in 1990. Under Rule 18(2) of the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011, a seller may not charge more than the printed price. A seller may charge less.
“Retailers also enjoy the legal freedom to underprice a product, the government having fixed only the upper limit,” Outlook explained in 2022. Companies began quoting a lower market operating price as well, because “customers have always bargained on MRP and sought discounts.”
Parties Riven Asunder
Mahatma Gandhi practiced law in South Africa from 1893. In one of his first cases, he persuaded the two parties to take their dispute to an arbitrator and settle it. He wrote that he had realized “the true function of a lawyer was to unite parties riven asunder.”
“This lesson was so indelibly burnt into me that a large part of my time during the twenty years of my practice as a lawyer was occupied in bringing about private compromises of hundreds of cases.”
No Business Without a Reference
In July 2015 weavers in Surat’s Sachin industrial area decided “not to do business with merchants who do not provide valid references.” A committee of the Sachin Weavers’ Welfare Association was to cross-verify the merchants’ details.
The same market also shares warnings. In January 2026 the Federation of Surat Trade and Textile Associations announced plans to “publicly name textile distributors defaulting on payments beyond the 180-day credit period,” on a mobile app.
Fruit in Its Season
Dheere dheere re mana, dheere sab kuchh hoye. Maali seenche sau ghada, ritu aaye phal hoye.
Slowly, O mind, everything happens slowly. The gardener may pour a hundred pots of water, but the fruit comes when its season comes. The couplet is by the poet Kabir, who lived in the 15th and early 16th centuries.
Force Majeure
On February 19, 2020, the Ministry of Finance ruled that “disruption of supply chains due to spread of Coronavirus will be covered” under the force majeure clause of government contracts. On May 13 it went further. For contractors not already in default, dates for obligations falling due from February 20 “shall stand extended for a period not less than three months and not more than six months,” without “any cost or penalty on the contractor/concessionaire.”
The same day, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs asked the states to “treat the pandemic COVID-19 as ‘force majeure'” under the real estate law and to “automatically extend registration of all real estate projects registered under RERA by 6 months.”