Bills of Exchange Amendment Act

This provision amends section 1 of the Bills of Exchange Act, 1964 by changing several definitions, including bank, cheque, collecting bank, non-business day, and note, and by deleting some definitions.

A bill may be treated as payable to bearer if the payee is fictitious, non-existing, or lacks capacity to contract.

A bill counts as payable to bearer in certain cases, including where it is expressed that way, endorsed in blank, or made payable to cash or cash or order.

Section 13 of the principal Act is repealed.

If someone signs a blank paper and hands it over to be turned into a bill, that delivery gives the recipient prima facie authority to complete it as a bill.

A bill contract is not complete and irrevocable until the instrument is delivered, unless an acceptance or aval is written on the bill and notice is given to the person entitled to the bill.

Section 23 of the principal Act is repealed.

A person who signs a bill in a representative way is not personally liable on it.

This section replaces section 25 of the principal Act.

A holder takes a bill for value if it is taken under onerous title.

If a holder transfers a bill payable to their order without endorsing it, the transferee gets the holder’s title and can require the transferor to endorse the bill.

This section amends section 30 of the principal Act, replacing subsection (5) about bills payable to order when the payee or indorsee is wrongly named or misspelt.

This section amends section 39 by replacing paragraph (a) of subsection (2), including the wording about when the drawee is dead, insolvent, fictitious, non-existing, or lacks capacity to contract.

A collecting bank may present a cheque for payment to the drawee for the holder, including by agreed data transmission, if the stated section 43 requirements are met.

Rules about dishonoured bills are adjusted: a dishonoured bill may be protested, protesting is not required to hold the drawer or an indorser liable, and if the cause of delay ends, the bill must be protested with reasonable diligence.

A bill holder must show the bill to the person demanding payment, and must hand it over when it is paid.

This section substitutes section 54 of the principal Act with a provision titled “Liability of stranger signing bill.”

If someone signs a bill in a capacity other than drawer, acceptor, aval signer, or drawee certifying a cheque, they take on an indorser’s liabilities to a holder in due course.

A person who signs a bill or note as an aval becomes liable as a surety for the party covered by the aval.

This section amends section 55 so that, after a dishonored bill, the holder may recover from liable parties, and a drawer or indorser who has paid may recover from specified others.

This section amends Section 58 of the principal Act by replacing “banker” with “bank” wherever it appears, and it repeals section 63 of Act 34 of 1964.

Section 63 of the principal Act is repealed.

Section 64 of the principal Act is repealed.

This section repeals section 65 of the principal Act and refers to repeal of section 66 of Act 34 of 1964.

Section 66 of the principal Act is repealed.

If a bill or note is lost or destroyed before it is overdue, the holder may ask the drawer or maker for a replacement of the same tenor, and may need to give adequate security to indemnify them if the original is found again.

Section 25 substitutes a new section 68 of the principal Act about action upon a lost bill or note.

In court proceedings on a bill or note, the court may order that loss or non-production of the instrument cannot be used as a defence if an indemnity is provided.

This section amends section 70 of the principal Act and changes rules for interpreting certain bill contracts by the law of the place where the contract was made, with a specific exception for an inland bill payable in the Republic and endorsed outside the Republic.

The Act says its cheque provisions also apply to a bill drawn by a bank on itself and payable on demand.

The section changes the wording so “banker” becomes “bank” and gives the holder of a cheque a right to recover the amount from the bank to the extent of the discharge.

If a drawee certifies a cheque, it must pay as stated and cannot deny certain facts to a holder in due course.

Some persons must take reasonable care with cheque forms and bank statement reconciliation.

This section substitutes a new section about revoking a bank’s authority.

A bank’s duty and authority to pay a customer’s cheque end when it receives a countermand or notice of the customer’s death, incapacity, or insolvency-related status, if the notice properly identifies the cheque/customer and gives the bank a reasonable chance to act.

Section 74 of the principal Act is repealed.

This section amends the cheque-crossing rules in section 75.

Cheques marked 'not transferable' or 'non transferable' cannot be transferred, and banks are protected from negligence claims based only on ignoring transfer-blocking endorsements or words.

This provision amends section 76 about how cheques may be crossed.

This section substitutes a new section 77 of the principal Act titled “Crossing material part of cheque”.

A person must not erase, cancel, add to, or alter a crossing on a cheque unless the Act authorizes it.

Banks must follow special rules when paying crossed cheques and may be liable if they pay contrary to those rules.

Section 37 substitutes section 79 of the principal Act with a provision titled “Protection to bank and drawer where cheque is crossed”.

A bank that pays a crossed cheque in good faith and without negligence gets the same protection as if it had paid the true owner.

Section 81 is amended by replacing subsections (1), (2), and (5). The new text lets a true owner recover a limited amount if a stolen or lost crossed cheque marked “not negotiable” was paid and the bank is not liable.

This section substitutes a new rule applying sections 75 to 81 to certain documents other than cheques.

This section makes sections 75 to 81 apply to certain payment documents as if they were cheques.

Section 83 is amended so a bank acting in good faith and in the ordinary course of business is not liable merely because endorsement is missing or irregular when it credits or pays certain cheques, documents, or drafts.

A bank gets certain rights when a payable-to-order cheque or similar document is delivered for collection without proper indorsement, and it is treated as holder in pledge if the holder owes the bank money.

This section replaces section 85 of the principal Act and gives the new heading “Evidential value of payment of unendorsed or irregularly indorsed cheques or certain other documents”.

If a cheque, draft, or similar document covered by section 83 is paid by the bank on which it is drawn, that payment is prima facie evidence that the payee received the amount stated.

This amendment says certain bill-related rules do not apply to notes.

This section says a required signature does not have to be signed by hand; an authorized person may write or print it, and certain corporate seals, stamps, or computer-printed authorized names count as signing.

Section 97 of the principal Act is repealed.

If a dishonoured bill or note must be protested but a notary is unavailable, a local landowner or householder may sign a certificate with two witnesses that serves as a formal protest.

This section says the Act is named the Bills of Exchange Amendment Act, 2000, and starts when the President sets a date by proclamation in the Gazette.