Section 74 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 limits recovery under a stipulated sum/penalty clause to reasonable compensation not exceeding the amount stipulated. This receipt therefore does not state that forfeiture is automatically valid merely because the word earnest is used.
3. RERA / POSSESSION
4. NO CONVEYANCE
This receipt does not transfer ownership. Section 54 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 states that a contract for sale does not itself create an interest in or charge on the property.
PERSONAL DATA NOTICE
This notice is given under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. Personal data in this document is collected only to record the earnest-money payment, its transaction context and any later refund/forfeiture issue, communicate about that purpose, verify information expressly supplied, and retain an evidentiary record.
If the proposed transaction does not proceed, or this document is withdrawn before it takes effect, the personal data will be retained for 90 days from that decision and then erased. If the transaction proceeds, the record will be retained for the term of the transaction plus 12 months and then erased, except for a record that a statute requires to be kept for a longer named period.
Data minimisation: this document deliberately does not require a full Aadhaar number, Aadhaar-card copy, passwords or unrelated identity material. PAN, banking and financing information is included only in a document whose transaction purpose genuinely requires it.