Most of the business transactions are based on promises to be performed at a later date.
Law Of Contract
Most of the business transactions
are based on promises to be performed at a later date. These promises whether
made by businessmen or by others create certain rights and obligations and if
these rights and obligations are not enforceable, the business world would be
paralysed. It is with the enforcement of these promises that the law of
contract is concerned. The contract Act does not lay down the list of
obligations that would be enforceable by law but lays down the rules subject to
which rights or duties created by the parties would be enforced. The parties to
the contract can make whatever rules they want, if these rules are not
inconsistent with the provisions of the Act, they would be enforced by courts
of law.
Meaning: Sec.2 (h) “An agreement
enforceable by law is a contract.” Therefore,
a contract has two important elements, one is the agreement, and the other is
the obligation which is enforceable by law.
Agreement: Agreement is the outcome of the
consensus between the parties who
enter into a contract, i.e., the promise made between them, represents
concurrence of their minds. (Sec.13). these would not be an agreement if the
parties do agree but not on the same thing in the same sense, i.e., consensus
is not sufficient. There has to be consensus
ad idem. Sec.2 (e) defines an agreement as “Every promise or every set of
promises forming consideration for each other”. A proposal when accepted
becomes a promise.
Example: A received Rs.10, 000 from B
and promises to supply him 10 bags
of rice after 10 days. It is a promise. It shall be a set of promises if A
promises to supply 10 bags of rice after 10 days and B promises to pay him
Rs.10, 000 after the rice is supplied. Thus, Agreement = Offer + Acceptance.
Offer (Proposal): Offer [(proposal) (Sec.2 (a)]
“When one person signifies to
another his willingness to do or to abstain from doing anything with a view to
obtaining the assent of the other to such act or abstinence, he is said to make
a proposal”.
Acceptance: Acceptance has been defined u/s
(Sec.2 (b)) as “When the person to
whom the proposal is made, signifies his assent thereto, the proposal is said
to be accepted. A proposal when accepted becomes a promise”.
Example: A lost his Cell Phone and
announced that anybody who brought
his cell phone back home would receive Rs.500 as reward. B heard the
announcement and brought the Cell Phone back home. He is said to have accepted
the proposal by doing the act required by A and hence he can recover the
reward.
Promisor: A person who makes the promise is
called the ‘Promisor’ or ‘Offeror’. And the person to whom the proposal is made is known as ‘Promisee’ or ‘Offeree.’In case an agreement is a set of promises, then a person becomes a promisor and promisee. Thus if there is an offer, acceptance and consensus ad
idem between the parties, there is an agreement. However, this agreement does
not become a contract unless there is a corresponding obligation, i.e.,
enforceability at law.
Obligation (Sec.10): It is the legal duty of
a person to carry out what he has
promised to do or not to do. All agreements are contracts if they are made by
the free consent of the parties competent to enter into contract, for a lawful
consideration and with a lawful object and not hereby expressly declared to be
void. Therefore, a person becomes legally bound to do what he has promised to
do only if the following conditions are fulfilled.
- Capacity of the Parties: Only those persons who are competent to enter into a contract can create valid obligations. A minor, a lunatic, a drunkard etc., suffer from flaw in capacity to Contract and therefore the contract made with them can’t be enforced against them.
- Free Consent: Absence of consent does not create a legal obligation. For an agreement to become a contract the parties to an agreement should give their consent to the agreement out of their own free will. It should not be induced by coercion, undue influence, fraud, misrepresentation, etc.
- Lawful Consideration and Object: Consideration means
something in return, i.e., ‘quid pro quo.’ E.g. A promises to give his bike to
B for no money, here, there is no consideration, hence no obligation. Without
consideration a promise can’t be enforceable by law. However, consideration
need not be in money or in kind. It may be of an act, abstinence, a promise to
do, or not to do something. But consideration should be lawful.
- Example: A promises to pay a sum of money to B if B smuggles the object proposed by A. In this case, there is no lawful object.
- Intention to create Legal Relationship: Social obligation can’t bring legal relationship. For example: Father promised his son to pay Rs.100 per day for pocket expenses, however, later on, did not pay the said amount. Therefore, if the parties do not intend to be bound by law at the time they make promises, nothing can bind them to their promises, later on.
- Possibility of Performance: Example: A promised B that he would make The Sun rises in the West if B pays him Rs.1 lakh. And B agreed to it, this agreement does not create any legal obligation as it would not be enforceable by law.
- Meaning should be certain: Example: A agrees to sell B’s horse. There is nothing whatever to show which horse is intended. The agreement is void for uncertainty.
- Legal Formalities (If required): An agreement to make a gift for natural love and affection should not only be in writing but registered also (Sec. 25). In the absence of any such specific requirement an oral agreement is as enforceable as a written agreement.
- Agreements not Declared Void: Indian Contract Act has specifically declared some agreements to be not enforceable at law e.g. Agreements in restraint of trade, Agreements in restraint of marriage, wagering agreements etc. Thus the law of Contract is not the whole law of Agreements. It is the law of those agreements which create obligations
Tags : Business Environment and Law-Law Of Contract (Indian Contract Act 1872)
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