Indian Contract Act, 1872
38. Effect of refusal to accept offer
of performance
Where a promisor has made an offer of performance to the
promisee, and the offer has not been accepted, the promisor is not responsible
for non-performance, nor does he thereby lose his rights under the contract.
Every such officer must fulfill the following conditions-
(1) it must be unconditional;
(2) it must be made at a proper time and place, and under such
circumstances that the person to whom it is made may have a reasonable
opportunity of ascertaining that the person by whom it is been made is able and
willing there and then to do the whole of what he is bound by his promise to
do;
(3) if the offer is an offer to deliver anything to the
promisee, the promisee must have a reasonable opportunity of seeing that the
thing offered is the thing which the promisor is bound by his promise to
deliver.
An offer to one of several joint promisees has the same legal
consequences as an offer to all of them.
Illustration
A contracts to deliver to B at his warehouse, on the first
March, 1873, 100 bales of cotton of a particular quality. In order to make an
offer of performance with the effect stated in this section, A must bring the
cotton to B's warehouse, on the appointed day, under such circumstances that B
may have a reasonable opportunity of satisfying himself that the thing offered
is cotton of the quality contracted for, and that there are 100 bales.