Section 20 - Inchoate stamped instruments - Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881

Inchoate stamped instruments. 20. Where one person signs and delivers to another a paper stamped in accordance with the law relating to negotiable instru ments then in force in India, and either wholly blank or having written thereon an incomplete negotiable instrument, he thereby gives prima facie authority to the holder thereof to make or complete, as the case may be, upon it a negotiable instrument, for any amount specified therein and not exceeding the amount covered by the stamp. The person so signing shall be liable upon such instrument, in the capacity in which he signed the same, to any holder in due course for such amount : Provided that no person other than a holder in due course shall recover from the person delivering the instrument anything in excess of the amount intended by him to be paid thereunder.