{"id":8465,"date":"2026-06-01T12:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T07:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=8465"},"modified":"2026-06-01T13:37:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T08:07:56","slug":"what-is-the-doctrine-of-promissory-estoppel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/what-is-the-doctrine-of-promissory-estoppel\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctrine of Promissory Estoppel"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Doctrine of Promissory Estoppel Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Supreme Court recently observed that the doctrine of promissory estoppel cannot be invoked to claim a benefit under a government policy which was never aimed to benefit a specific class of industrial unit.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Doctrine of Promissory Estoppel<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a legal doctrine that states that <\/span><b>if someone reasonably relies on a promise and acts <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(or fails to act) in a way that <\/span><b>causes them some harm because of that promise<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><b>promise can be enforced.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Promissory estoppel <\/span><b>prevents <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the <\/span><b>promisor from arguing against the enforcement of a promise.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>When is the doctrine applied?<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The doctrine applies when the <\/span><b>promisor has made a promise to the promisee.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>promisee <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">must have <\/span><b>relied on the promise and suffered a detriment due to the non-performance of the promise.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The doctrine <\/span><b>prevents the promisor<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or enterprise <\/span><b>from going back on its word <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">or promise.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The doctrine <\/span><b>enables <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the injured party or the <\/span><b>promisee to recover on a promise.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The doctrine seeks to <\/span><b>protect the rights of a promisee<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or aggrieved party against the promisor.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thus, Promissory estoppel <\/span><b>requirements include a clear promise<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (whether oral or in writing),<\/span><b> reliance on that promise by the promisee, a detriment suffered, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and a<\/span><b> need to avoid injustice.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Example<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A vendor makes an oral promise to the customer to replace the goods if they do not fit the customer\u2019s size requirements.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The customer purchases the clothes and takes them home.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, the customer proposes to return the clothes to the vendor relying on the vendor\u2019s oral promise.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here, the vendor is estopped from refusing the clothes returned.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The doctrine<\/span><b> varies from country to country<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Cases of promissory estoppel can <\/span><b>result in either reliance or expectation damages,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> depending on the jurisdiction and circumstances.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a <\/span><b>1981 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">decision in <\/span><b>Chhaganlal Keshavalal Mehta v. Patel Narandas Haribhai,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SC <\/span><b>lists a checklist<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for when the doctrine can be applied.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First, there <\/span><b>must be a clear and unambiguous promise.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Second, the <\/span><b>plaintiff must have acted relying reasonably on that promise.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Third, the <\/span><b>plaintiff must have suffered a loss.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source<\/b><strong>:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livelaw.in\/supreme-court\/supreme-court-lays-down-principles-on-promissory-estoppel-says-it-cant-be-invoked-for-benefits-never-intended-535688\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>LL<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Doctrine of Promissory Estoppel is a legal doctrine that states that if someone reasonably relies on a promise and acts (or fails to act) in a way that causes them some harm because of that promise, the promise can be enforced. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":106101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7881],"class_list":["post-8465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-doctrine-of-promissory-estoppel","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8465"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106159,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8465\/revisions\/106159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}