Bailment [Sections 148 — 181]

You leave your laptop at a repair shop in Lamington Road, your bike with the valet at a mall, your jewellery with a bank locker operator, and your gold chain with a pawnbroker against a loan. In every case someone else now holds your property, but it is still yours and you expect it back. What does the holder owe you, what can he keep it for, and what happens if he sells it? Sections 148 to 181 of the Contract Act answer all of this under the single word bailment.

In two minutes

Bailment is the delivery of goods by one person to another for a purpose, on a contract that they will be returned or disposed of as directed when the purpose is done (s.148); the bailee must take ordinary prudent care (s.151), and the law gives him liens, pledge rights and protection against wrong-doers.

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