Promissory note

Your neighbour in Kharghar asks for Rs. 2 lakh for three months to meet a hospital bill, and you agree. Before handing over the cash you ask him to sign a small piece of paper. Why that paper, and why does the wording matter so much that one extra phrase can make it useless as a note? A promissory note is one of the shortest documents a lawyer drafts, and one of the easiest to get wrong.

In two minutes

A promissory note is a written, signed, unconditional undertaking by the maker to pay a certain sum of money only to, or to the order of, a certain person or to the bearer, and it is not a bank-note or currency-note (Negotiable Instruments Act 1881, s.4).

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Drafting, Pleading and Conveyancing – I on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.