Deadlines Archives - understand-culture

Time Is Not of the Essence

Under Section 55 of the Indian Contract Act of 1872, a missed date makes a contract voidable only if the parties intended time to be essential. Otherwise the other side can only claim compensation.

In Chand Rani v. Kamal Rani, decided in December 1992, the Supreme Court applied this to the sale of immovable property. In such sales “there is no presumption as to time being the essence of the contract.” Elsewhere the judgment puts it more strongly: “there is presumption against time being the essence of the contract.”

Sufficient Cause

Section 5 of the Limitation Act of 1963 allows a court to admit an appeal after its deadline if the applicant shows that “he had sufficient cause” for the delay.

In Collector, Land Acquisition, Anantnag v. Mst. Katiji, decided on February 19, 1987, the Supreme Court explained how to read the rule. “It is common knowledge that this Court has been making a justifiably liberal approach in matters instituted in this Court,” it said. The “cause of substantial justice deserves to be preferred” over technical considerations.

One More Day

Income tax returns for the assessment year 2025-26 were due on July 31, 2025. The Central Board of Direct Taxes moved the date to September 15. Then it decided “to further extend the due date for filing these ITRs for AY 2025-26 from 15th September, 2025 to 16th September, 2025.” Taxpayers had complained of problems with the filing portal, The Tribune reported.

The Census of 2027

India’s last full census was taken in 2011. The next was due in 2021, and it was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. A government notification now sets its reference date at “00.00 hours of the 1st day of March, 2027.” For Ladakh and the snow-bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the date is October 1, 2026.

The Bullet Train

“The first deadline of the Bullet Train project was December 2023,” The Pioneer wrote in April 2022. India’s first high-speed line is to run from Mumbai to Ahmedabad. By then the government had moved the target for a section of it to 2027. The Free Press Journal reports that full operation “has now been pushed to December 2029,” citing delays in land acquisition in Maharashtra.

Pushpa 2

Pushpa 2: The Rule, starring Allu Arjun, was set for release on August 15, 2024. The producers, Mythri Movie Makers, moved it to December 6, 2024. They cited the remaining shoot and the post-production work still to be done.

It Will Get Done

Ho jayega. It will get done. HP India built an advertising campaign for small businesses around the phrase. The trade site BestMediaInfo called it “that typical Indian expression.” HP India’s chief marketing officer, Prashant Jain, described the campaign as “a celebration of the dependability of the Indian small business owner.”

Link by June 30

In 2017 the Indian government required taxpayers to link their PAN, the tax identity number, with Aadhaar, the national identity number. The deadlines in 2017 were July 31, August 31 and December 31. Then came March 31, 2018, and more dates after it. In 2021 the fact-checking site BoomLive called the latest move “the 11th such extension.”

In March 2023 the deadline moved once more, from March 31 to June 30, 2023. From July 1, 2023, the PAN of a taxpayer who had not linked it was to become inoperative.

Date After Date

Tareekh pe tareekh, tareekh pe tareekh, tareekh pe tareekh milti rahi hai, My Lord, lekin insaaf nahin mila. Date after date, date after date, date after date we were given, My Lord, but no justice. Sunny Deol says it as a lawyer in the courtroom scene of Damini (1993), directed by Rajkumar Santoshi.

Since July 2002, the Code of Civil Procedure has limited adjournments to three for each party during the hearing of a suit. The same rule, Order XVII, Rule 1, lets the court grant time “if sufficient cause is shown.”

Possession Date

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act of 2016 set up state authorities to hold builders to their delivery dates. Ten years later, a homebuyers’ association, FPCE, estimated that 27.6 lakh families still had money stuck in delayed projects, about 12.44 lakh crore rupees.

FPCE said: “RERA has not failed as a statute. Its enforcement has.”