The Specific Relief (Amendment) Act, 2018
The Specific Relief (Amendment), Act of 2018 has been passed by the Parliament with a sole purpose of tackling the inefficiencies and inabilities that had developed in the Specific Relief Act of 1963; Owing to the recent trends of transformation in the Indian economy and the business –finance sector, the Amendment Act has truly brought about a considerable change in the substratum and ethos of the principal Act. The research paper emphasizes on the various amended provisions of the principal act and how they are going to act as an antidote to the long ailment of contractual enforcement. It also intensively discusses and analyses the changes that the Amendment has brought in by providing Specific Performance as a rule rather than an exception and by doing away with the discretionary power of the courts in matters such as Contract enforcement. The additional measure to obtain relief in the form of Substituted Performance and the subsequent employment of experts is even commended by the researcher. Even the proposed plan of setting up certain special courts for infrastructure related disputes and crunching the court proceedings over a period of 24 months has been evaluated by the researcher. Along with this, the researcher interprets the Amendment Act and analyses its implications and expected impacts. The applicability of the Amendment Act has been brought to the forefront by presenting a comparison of the same with the Specific Relief Act of 1963. The research highlights the overall relevancy of the Amendment Act and argues that it is truly a “way forward” for the transforming conditions of the present era.