Vidhara

The Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881

§46Delivery

The making, acceptance or indorsement of a promissory note, bill of exchange or cheque is completed by delivery, actual or constructive. As between parties standing in immediate relation, delivery to be effectual must be made by the party making, accepting or indorsing the instrument, or by a person authorized by him in that behalf. As between such parties and any holder of the instrument other than a holder in due course, it may be shown that the instrument was delivered conditionally or for a special purpose only, and not for the purpose of transferring absolutely the property therein. A promissory note, bill of exchange or cheque payable to bearer is negotiable by the delivery thereof. A promissory note, bill of exchange or cheque payable to order is negotiable by the holder by indorsement and delivery thereof. 1.

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Official text: India Code (official)

Official India Code text: The Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (26 of 1881), English PDF (bitstream 123456789/15327/1/negotiable_instruments_act,_1881.pdf, 681,124 bytes, sha256 50fe22a1…) fetched directly from indiacode.nic.in (Akamai edge, DNS via dns.google) on 2026-07-29. Extracted via pdftotext 26.07 -bbox and @nexlex/ingest gazette parser. Automated parse; footnotes/amendment history excluded; spot-verified (s. 138 cheque dishonour); full clause-level proofread pending.

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