This Act may be cited as the Money-lenders Amendment Act, 1933, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Money-lenders Act, 1908 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

Notwithstanding anything contained in the principal Act, it shall not be lawful for any money-lender registered under that Act to carry on his business in the financial year commencing on the first day of April, nineteen hundred and thirty-four, or in any financial year thereafter, unless and until he has paid for each year in which he proposes to carry on business a license fee of fifteen pounds in respect of each registered address:

Provided that where later than one month after the beginning of any financial year any money-lender first becomes registered under the principal Act or registers any new address the appropriate annual license fee payable for that year shall be reduced by twenty-five shillings for each full calendar month elapsing between the beginning of that year and the date of registration.

Every license fee as aforesaid shall be paid to the Clerk of the Magistrate’s Court at the time of making application for registration, or renewal of registration, of the money-lender under the principal Act, or the registration of a new address, as the case may be, and on the making of such registration or renewal a license in the prescribed form shall be issued to such money-lender. Where the license is in respect of any registered address other than the principal office of the money-lender a certified copy thereof shall also be issued to him and shall be kept and exhibited by him at such first-mentioned address.

Where a registered money-lender ceases to carry on his business at any registered address in respect of which a license fee has been paid under this section earlier than one month before the end of any financial year there may, if the Minister of Justice so directs, be refunded to him an amount of twenty-five shillings for each full calendar month elapsing between the date of his so ceasing to carry on business and the end of such year.

The payment of such fee or the issue of such license shall not authorize the person affected to carry on business as a money-lender at any time when his registration under the principal Act is suspended or cancelled or is otherwise not in force.

Subject to subsection three hereof, every registration of a money-lender under the principal Act made before the passing of this Act shall cease to have effect at the close of the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and thirty-four, and every such registration made after the passing of this Act shall cease to have effect at the close of the thirty-first day of March next following the date of registration.

Every such registration as aforesaid may from time to time be renewed, and if renewed shall have effect until the close of the thirty-first day of March next following the date from which it is renewed and, save as provided in the next succeeding subsection, shall then cease to have effect.

Notwithstanding anything contained in the foregoing provisions of this section, where application for the renewal of the registration of a money-lender is made before such registration ceases to have effect such registration shall, where necessary, continue in force until the application for renewal is disposed of, unless the Magistrate otherwise directs.

This section is in substitution for subsection two of section five of the principal Act, and that subsection is hereby accordingly repealed.

Every application for registration or renewal of registration of a money-lender under the principal Act shall be considered by a Stipendiary Magistrate exercising jurisdiction in the Magistrate’s Court at which such application is lodged.

The Magistrate shall direct such registration not to be made or renewed if—

No appeal shall lie to any Court against a decision of a Magistrate under this section.

Where any person registered as a money-lender under the principal Act is convicted of any offence under that Act or this Act the Court—

Any license or certified copy thereof required by a Court for endorsement in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this section shall be produced, in such manner and within such time as may be directed by the Court, by the person by whom it is held and any person who, without reasonable cause, makes default in producing any license or certified copy so required shall, in respect of each offence, be liable on summary conviction to a fine of five pounds for each day during which the default continues.

Subsection two of section four of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting the words “If a money-lender fails to register himself as required by this Act”, and substituting the words “If a money-lender carries on business at any time when he is not registered under this Act or while his registration is suspended”.

No person shall knowingly send, or deliver or cause to be sent or delivered, to any person, except in response to his written request, any circular or other document advertising the name, address, or telephone number of a money-lender, or containing an invitation—

Save as hereinafter provided, no person shall publish or cause to be published in any newspaper or other printed paper issued periodically for public circulation, or by means of any poster or placard, an advertisement advertising any such particulars, or containing any such invitation, as aforesaid.

Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this section shall prohibit the publication by or on behalf of any money-lender of any advertisement in a newspaper or other periodical publication as aforesaid, or the exhibition of a poster or placard at any registered address of the money-lender, containing only the following particulars or any of them, namely:—

No money-lender or any person on his behalf shall employ any agent or canvasser for the purpose of inviting any person to borrow money or to enter into any transaction involving the borrowing of money from a money-lender, and no person shall act as such agent or canvasser, or demand or receive directly or indirectly any sum or other valuable consideration by way of commission or otherwise for introducing or undertaking to introduce to a money-lender any person desiring to borrow money.

Where any document issued or published by or on behalf of a money-lender purports to indicate the terms of interest upon which he is willing to make loans or any particular loan, the document shall either express the interest proposed to be charged in terms of a rate per centum per annum, or show the rate per centum per annum represented by the interest proposed to be charged as calculated in accordance with the provisions of the Schedule to this Act.

Any person acting in contravention of any of the provisions of this section commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a period of three months or a fine of one hundred pounds or to both such imprisonment and fine.

Where it is shown that a money-lending transaction was brought about by a contravention of any of the provisions of this section, the transaction shall be illegal, unless the money-lender proves that the contravention occurred without his consent or connivance.

No contract for the repayment by a borrower of money lent to him or to any agent on his behalf by a money-lender after the commencement of this Act or for the payment by him of interest on money so lent, and no security given by the borrower or by any such agent as aforesaid in respect of any such contract shall be enforceable, unless a note or memorandum in writing of the contract is signed personally by the borrower, and unless a copy thereof is delivered or sent to the borrower within seven days of the making of the contract, and no such contract or security shall be enforceable if it is proved that the note or memorandum aforesaid was not signed by the borrower before the money was lent or before the security was given, as the case may be.

The note or memorandum aforesaid shall contain all the terms of the contract, and, in particular, shall show the date on which the loan is made the amount of the principal of the loan, and either the interest charged on the loan expressed in terms of a rate per centum per annum or the rate per centum per annum represented by the interest charged as calculated in accordance with the provisions of the Schedule to this Act:

Provided that where the loan is for a term of less than twelve months it shall not be necessary to state any rate of interest if the total amount charged by way of interest is stated.

Any contract made after the commencement of this Act for the loan of money by a money-lender shall be illegal in so far as it provides directly or indirectly for the payment of compound interest or for the rate or amount of interest being increased by reason of any default in the payment of sums due under the contract:

Provided that provision may be made by any such contract that if default is made in the payment upon the due date of any sum payable to the money-lender under the contract, whether in respect of principal or interest, the money-lender shall be entitled to charge simple interest on that sum from the date of the default until the sum is paid, at a rate not exceeding the rate payable in respect of the principal apart from any default, and any interest so charged shall not be reckoned for the purposes of this Act as part of the interest charged in respect of the loan.

Where by a contract for the loan of money by a money-lender the interest charged on the loan is not expressed in terms of a rate, any amount paid or payable to the money-lender under the contract (other than simple interest charged in accordance with the proviso to section nine hereof) shall be appropriated to principal and interest in the proportion that the principal bears to the total amount of the interest, and the rate per centum per annum represented by the interest charged as calculated in accordance with the provisions of the Schedule to this Act shall be deemed to be the rate of interest charged on the loan.

In respect of every contract for the repayment of money lent by a money-lender, whether made before or after the commencement of this Act, the money-lender shall, on any reasonable demand in writing being made by the borrower at any time during the continuance of the contract and on tender by the borrower of one shilling for expenses, supply to the borrower or, if the borrower so requires, to any person specified in that behalf in the demand, a statement signed by the money-lender or his agent showing—

A money-lender shall, on any reasonable demand in writing by the borrower, and on tender of a reasonable sum for expenses, supply a copy of any document relating to a loan made by him or any security therefor, to the borrower, or, if the borrower so requires, to any person specified in that behalf in the demand.

If a money-lender to whom a demand has been made under this section fails, without reasonable excuse, to comply therewith within one month after the demand has been made, he shall not, so long as the default continues, be entitled to sue for or recover any sum due under the contract on account either of principal or interest, and interest shall not be chargeable in respect of the period of the default, and if such default is made or continued after proceedings have ceased to lie in respect of the loan, the money-lender shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine of five pounds for every day on which the default continues.

Paragraph (d) of subsection one of section four of the principal Act is hereby repealed.

Subsection three of section three of the principal Act is hereby amended by inserting, after the words “Provided that”, the words “except by leave of the Court”.

No application shall be made to the Court under subsection three of section three of the principal Act, as amended by the last preceding subsection, in respect of any transaction that has been closed more than two years before the passing of this Act.

Where in respect of any moneys lent by a money-lender, whether in one or more transactions, arrangements are made for the repayment thereof with moneys borrowed for that purpose from any other money-lender or money-lenders, a Court, at the instance of the borrower or surety or other person liable, shall have power under subsection three of section three of the principal Act to reopen all such transactions as if they were parts of the one transaction and make in respect thereof and the several parties thereto such orders as it thinks fit.

Where (in any proceedings in respect of any money lent by a money-lender after the commencement of this Act or in respect of any agreement or security made or taken after the commencement of this Act in respect of money lent either before or after the commencement of this Act) it is found that the interest charged exceeds the rate of forty-eight per centum per annum or the corresponding rate in respect of any other period, the Court shall, unless the contrary is proved, presume, for the purposes of section three of the principal Act, that the interest charged is excessive, and that the transaction is harsh and unconscionable; but this provision shall be without prejudice to the powers of the Court under that section where the Court is satisfied that the interest charged, although not exceeding forty-eight per centum per annum, is excessive:

Provided that the foregoing provisions of this subsection shall not apply in any case where the amount of the loan is less than twenty-five pounds and the term thereof less than three months.

Where any Court reopens a transaction of a money-lender under the said section three of the principal Act, the Court may require the money-lender to produce any license granted to him under this Act and any certified copy thereof, and may cause such particulars as the Court thinks desirable to be endorsed on such license and certified copy, and a copy of the particulars to be sent to the Clerk of the Magistrate’s Court at which he was registered.

The powers of a Court under subsection three of the said section three of the principal Act (which enables a Court at the instance of the borrower, surety, or other person liable, to exercise its powers under that section with respect to the reopening of the transactions of money-lenders, although no proceedings are taken for the recovery of the money lent, and notwithstanding that the time for repayment may not have arrived) may, in the event of the bankruptcy of the borrower, be exercised at the instance of the Official Assignee in Bankruptcy notwithstanding that he may not be a person liable in respect of the transaction.

The powers of a Court under the said sub-section three of section three of the principal Act may be exercised notwithstanding that the money-lender’s right of action for the recovery of the money lent is barred.

The powers conferred on the Governor-General by section five of the principal Act to make regulations for the matters therein specified are hereby extended to enable him to make all such regulations as may be necessary for giving full effect to the provisions of this Act.