Indian Contract Act 1872: Interpretations

• The reference text is the Indian Contract Act of 1872
• Arrangement of sections in the legislation
• It was enacted is to define and amend specific areas of contract law

Preliminary Matters

• The Act can be called the Indian Contract Act, 1872
• It extends to all of India
• It took effect on September 1, 1872
• Nothing in the Act affects existing statutes, acts, regulations, trade usages/customs, or contractual incidents unless explicitly repealed or inconsistent

Interpretation Clause

• Proposal: Signifying willingness to do/not do something to obtain assent
• Acceptance: Assent to a proposal
• Promise: An accepted proposal
• Promisor: Person making the proposal
• Promisee: Person accepting the proposal
• Consideration: Act, abstinence, or promise by the promisee at the promisor's desire
• Agreement: Every promise and set of promises forming consideration for each other
• Reciprocal Promises: Promises forming consideration for each other
• Void Agreement: An agreement not enforceable by law
• Contract: An agreement enforceable by law
• Voidable Contract: Agreement enforceable by law at the option of one party
• Void Contract: Contract that ceases to be enforceable by law

Communication, Acceptance, and Revocation of Proposals

• Communication of proposals, acceptance, and revocation occurs through acts/omissions intending to communicate them
• Proposal communication completes when the person it is addressed to knows about it.
• Acceptance communication completes:
  • As against proposer: When it's out of the acceptor's power
  • As against acceptor: When proposer knows
• Revocation communication completes:
  • As against person revoking: When it's out of their power
  • As against person being revoked to: When they know
• A proposal can be evoked any time before the communication of its acceptance is complete as against the proposer.
• An acceptance can be evoked any time before the communication of the acceptance is complete as against the acceptor
• A proposal is revoked by:
  • Notice of revocation to the other party
  • Lapse of prescribed time, or reasonable time if none prescribed without communication
  • Failure of acceptor to fulfill acceptance condition
  • Death/insanity of proposer known to acceptor before acceptance
• Acceptance must be absolute and unqualified
• It should expressed in the normal, reasonable way, unless the a certain way is described
• Performance of proposal conditions/acceptance of consideration constitutes acceptance
• Promises can be express (in words) or implied (otherwise than in words)

Contracts, Voidable Contracts, and Void Agreements

• Agreements are contracts if made by free consent of competent parties, for lawful consideration/object, and not expressly voided
• The law in India prevails, unless there is writing or witnesses or a document to register
• Every person is competent to contract if they are of age of majority, of sound mind, and not disqualified by law

Sound Mind

• A person can enter into a contract if they can understand its terms and form a rational judgment about its effect on their interests
• A person of unsound mind can agree to contracts during their sane moments
• Free consent occurs when not caused by coercion, undue influence, fraud, misrepresentation, or mistake
• Consent is said to have been caused when such consent has occurred

Coercion

• Committing/threatening to commit acts forbidden by the Indian Penal Code, or unlawfully detaining/threatening to detain property, to prejudice a person into an agreement
• It does not matter if the is or isn't an Indian penal code in place

Undue influence

• It is where relationships allows one party to dominate the others will and uses that position to get an unwanted favor
• A person is deemed to dominate the will of another, the following is considered
  • Holding real/apparent authority or fiduciary relation
  • Contracting with person whose mental capacity is affected by age, illness, distress

Fraud

• It includes acts committed by a party to a contract, with connivance, or by their agent, intending to deceive or induce the contract
  • Suggesting untrue facts by one not believing them true
  • Active concealment of facts with knowledge/belief of them
  • Promising without intent to perform
  • Any act fitted to deceive
  • Acts/omissions law declares fraudulent
• Remaining silent on facts affecting a person's contract willingness isn't fraud, unless obligated to speak or silence equals speech

Misrepresentation

• It includes:
  • Positively asserting untrue things not warranted by information
  • Breaching duty without intent to deceive, gaining advantage by misleading another
  • Innocently causing a party to mistake the agreement's subject

Agreements without Free Consent

• When agreement consent is caused by coercion, fraud, or misrepresentation, the agreement is voidable at the party's option
• If consent was caused by misrepresentation/fraudulent silence, the contract isn't voidable if the party could've discovered the truth with diligence
• When consent to an agreement is caused by undue influence, the agreement is a contract voidable at the option of the party whose consent was so caused
• A contract may be set aside the decision made by a court if agreed

Agreement Void

• Is caused when both parties are under mistake as to matter of fact essential to the agreement, the agreement is void
• An erroneous opinion as to the value of the thing which forms the subject-matter of the agreement, is not deemed a mistake as to a matter of fact.
• A contract is not voidable because it was caused by a mistake as to any law, however it carries the same effect as the fact

Lawful Considerations

• The consideration or object of an agreement is lawful, unless it is forbidden by law, defeats the provisions of any law, is fraudulent, implies injury to person/property, or the Court regards it as immoral/opposed to public policy

Agreements Void

• When items with unlawful considerations involved are unlawful in part.

Agreements without Consideration

• Unless written/registered, promising to compensate, or promising to pay a barred debt, an agreement lacks consideration
• An explanation of gift validity & free consent of promisor.

Agreement in Restraint of Marriage

• Every agreement that stops a person than a minor from marrying is void

Agreement in Restraint of Trade

• Every agreement that has one to agree to not do business is totally void

Agreement regarding Business

• Exception of good will may involve the agreement buyer to not work with his business

Agreements restraining legal proceedings

• Every agreement is void
  • if the rights provided are unable to be restricted under legal proceedings.
  • a time limit has been given

Contingent Contract

• It is a contract to do or not do something, if some event, collateral to such contract, does or does not happen
• Contingent contracts cannot be enforced by law unless and until that event has happened

Enforcement

• Has to be completed unless something impossible comes up or the contact becomes void

Obligations of Parties

• Have to perform or offer to do so, unless anything states otherwise
  • Death of someone is fine unless something states to happen of it

Refusal to Refuse Offer

• Where promise has made the request it goes to promisee and then isn't there then there's is a responsibility of if the rights lose something then the conditions will comply
• it must be unconditional
• it must be made at a proper time and place, the other person has to acknowledge it
• If something has to be delivered to the promise, and the thing offered is the bounded promise for it's delivery

Whom Contracts

• the parties that have the intention to start something
• Person will promise to performed, if something states otherwise, then the promise will competent to perform it

Liabilities

• When two or more has create a joint promise, all whom are alive will representatively be alive and the death will come latter

Release

• When the action happens is because the promise does not discharge the join promissory

Promissory Note

• The delivery must happen as there is some type of action that must be done, and that was made to fix

Unreasonable Action

• What happens is that we see is if for a performance is going to happen then someone must ready to perform what will promise

Contingency

• where the order and the performance are said to be not performed until everything states what order it'll need happen

Contract prevention

• When the action happens that one side is about the cause from the loss of something with the act.

Default

• Can't be performed because has said such so that other promise must create the damage payment to be good.

Effect of time

• Where there something good happens at good time to cause to be what one will act then a essence of what could happen of all the things was to come.

Agreements

• to cause to create an action to become void

Actions

• After words to find a impossible

Compensation

• To give something back to that loss

Payment

• How things that will be implied to come back

Discharge

• Is the freedom of what must happen as contract

Action

• To understand with contract as how It must follow and there will all come.

Incapable

• A person that need anything at all.

Person

• When a person needs money by another.

Loss or Damage

• How the contract can break if someone doesn't give or isn't to get back things from loss or anything

What was it for

• For the lack of when to action.

Contracts

• For loss and or actions