Indian Contract Act 1872
The Law of Contract constitutes the most important branch of Mercantile or Commercial Law. It is the foundation upon which the superstructure of modern business is built.
It affects everybody, more so, trade, commerce and industry. It may be said that the contract is the foundation of the civilized world.
A Contract is an agreement enforceable by law [Section2(h)]. An agreement is enforceable by law, if it is made by the free consent of the parties who are competent to contract and the agreement is made with a lawful object and is for a lawful consideration, and is not hereby expressly declared to be void [Section10].
All contracts are agreements but all agreements are not contracts. Agreements lacking any of the above said characteristics are not contracts. A contract that ceases to be enforceable by law is called ‘void contract’, [Section2(i)], but an agreement which is enforceable by law at the option of one party thereto, but not at the option of the other is called ‘voidable contract’ [(Section 2(i)].
Offer and Acceptance: Offeror undertakes to do or to abstain from doing a certain act if the offer is properly accepted by the offeree. Offer may be expressly made or may even be implied in conduct of the offeror, but it must be capable of creating legal relations and must intend to create legal relations. The terms of offer must be certain or at least be capable of being made certain.
Consent: Consent means ‘knowledge and approval’ of the parties concerned. A contract is made when one person makes an offer while another person accepts the offer. This acceptance of the offer should be made without any force or threat. It means that a consent given should be free and genuine.
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