This document discusses the introduction and definition of contract law in India. It provides definitions of key concepts related to contracts, including agreement, consideration, free consent, and remedies for breach of contract. It explains that a contract is an agreement that is enforceable by law, and discusses factors that can make an agreement void or voidable, such as coercion, undue influence, fraud, or mistake.

2.  INTRODUCTION OF LAW”
 “DEFINITION”
 The INDIAN CONTRACT ACT,1872
 “OBJeCT OF LAW OF CONTRACT”
 …….

3.  Man, A social being, hence gets into various contacts or
associations;
 These are inevitable consequence of modern civilization;
 Man is expected to observe A code of conduct or A set of
rules;
 Object is to make human associations possible and
conducive to the welfare of the state and its people.

4.  Man’s perspective influences his notions about law and such
its meaning;
 Single, accurate definition of law not possible as such it is
often preceded by an adjective to give A more precise
meaning;
 Law includes all the rules and principles which regulate our
relations with other individuals and with the state;
 Law ordains, directly or indirectly, implicitly or explicitly,

5.  Agreement and its enforceability – every promise and every
set of promises, forming consideration for each other;
[sec.2(e)]
 Agreement = offer + acceptance
 Obligation – legal tie which imposes performance as promised;
 Agreement is a very wide term – social or legal; contract =
agreement + enforceability
 Salmond-an agreement creating and defining obligation
between the parties

6.  A contract is an agreement made between two or more
parties which the law will enforce. Sec 2 H, defines A
contract as an agreement enforceable by law one or more.
 Sir William Anson defines a contract as a “legally binding
agreement between two or more person by which rights are
acquired by one or more to acts or forbearances on the part
of others”

7. The law relating to contracts is contained in Indian contract
act,1872 the act deals with--
 The general principal of the law of contract [sec 1 to 75]
 The act does not affect any usage or custom of trade[sec
1.Para’1]

8. “OBJECT OF LAW OF CONTRACT”
 That branch of law which determines the circumstances in
which promises made by the parties to A contract shall be
legally binding on them;
 Defines the ‘remedies’ and ‘conditions under which the
remedies’, that are available against the defaulter;
 Introduces definiteness in business transactions;
 Sir William Anson- is intended to ensure what A man has been
led to expect shall come to be performed as promised.

9.  Contract law does not lay down a number of rights and duties
which the law will enforce;
 Consists rather of a number of limiting principles;
 Subject to which the parties may create rights and obligations
for themselves which the law will uphold;
 Law of contract is not the whole law of agreements nor the
whole law of obligations, they are therefore, not contracts;
 Law of contract creates jus in personal(right against or in
respect of a specific person) as distinguished from jus in rem.

10.  Acc to sec 10, “all agreements are contracts if they are made
by the free consent of the parties.
 Sec 13 and 14 define free consent.
 As per sec 13, ‘two or more persons are said to consent when
they agree upon the same thing in the same sense.”

11.  Sec 14 defines, “free consent” as follows.
 Consent is said to be free when it is not caused by—
 Coercion, as defined in sec 15, or
 Undue influence, as defined in sec 16, or
 Fraud, as defined in sec 17, or
 Misrepresentation, as defined in sec 18, or
 Mistake, subject to the provisions of sec 20, 21 and 22.

12.  Is the committing or threatening to commit, any act forbidden by the
indian penal code or the unlawful detaining, or threatening to detain, any
property, to the prejudice of any person whatever, with the intention of
causing any person to enter into an agreement.
 Coercion includes so many things such as fear, a threat to beat, physical
compulsion, meanance to goods, a threat to commit suicide.

13. A contract is said to be induced by undue influence” where the relation
between the parties are such that one of the parties in position to
dominate the will of the other and uses that position to obtain an unfair
advantage over the other.
A person is deemed to be in position to dominate the will of other:
-where he stands in fiduciary relation to the other.
-where he makes a contract with a person whose mental capacity is
temprorariy or permanently affactead by reason of age, illness,or
mental or body distress
 Sometimes undue influence also called moral coercions.

14.  Acc to sec 17, “fraud means and includes any of the following acts
committed by A party to A contract, or with his connivance, or by his
agent, with intent to deceive another party thereto or his agent, or to
induce him to enter the contract:-
 Suggestion of that which is not true, by one who does not believe it
to be true;
 Active concealment of facts by one having knowledge or belief or the
fact;
 A promise made without any intention of performing it;
 Any other act fitted to deceive;
 Any such act or omission as the law declares it fraudulent,

15.  Positive assertion, in A manner not warranted by the information of the
person making it, of that which is not true, though he believes it to be
true;
 Any breach of duty, which without intent to deceive, gains an advantage
to the person committing it, or any one claiming under him, by misleading
another to his prejudice, or to the prejudice claiming under him;
 Causing, however innocently, A party to an agreement, to make A mistake
as to the substance of the thing which is the subject of the agreement.

16.  Acc to sec 20, “where both the parties to the agreement are under A
mistake as to A matter of fact essential to the agreement, the agreement is
void.”
 Mistake of two types – mistake of law and mistake of facts.
 Where both the parties to an agreement are under a mistake as to a matter
of fact essential to an agreement, the agreement is void. Both the parties
must be under mistake and the mistake must relate to A matter of fact
essential to the contract;
 A mistake by one of the parties also not affect the validity of the contract.

17. All agreements entered into are not enforceable by
law. The agreement which are not enforceable by law
are said to be void [sec 2(g)] such agreements do not
give rise to any legal consequences. All agreement
which are opposed to public policy are void.

18.  Agreements by incompetent parties [sec 11].
 Agreements made under mutual mistake of facts [sec 20].
 Agreements, the consideration or object of which is unlawful
[sec 23].
 Agreements entered into without any consideration [sec25].
 Agreements made in restraint of marriages [sec 26].

19.  Agreements made in restraint of trade ,business, occupation
[sec 27].
 Agreements in restraint of legal proceeding [sec 28].
 All Agreements, the meaning of which is not certain [sec29].
 Wagering agreements [sec 30].
 Agreements contingent on impossible events [sec 36].
 Agreements to do an act impossible in itself [sec 56].

20.  Where there is A right, there is A remedy;
 A contract gives rise to correlative rights and obligations;
 Right accruing to A party is of no use, if there is no remedy to
enforce the right breached or infringed;
 A remedy is the means given by law for the enforcement of A
right infringed;
 When breach to A contract occurs it causes injury or loss to the
aggrieved party.

21. “Remedies foR BReach of a
contRact”
An aggrieved party has certain remedies against the guilty
party there is A breach of contract. The remedies are as
follows :--
 Recession of the contract : revocation or setting aside of the contract
 Suit for damages : damages means monetary compensation payable by
the defaulting party
 Quantum meruit : as much earned – compensate for the part performed in
case of breach

22.  Suit for specific performance : where award of damages is not
considered an adequate remedy then the court of law can order
performance as promised
 Suit for injunction :an injunction is an order to the court asking A
person to do or abstain from doing A particular act, which in fact,
the subject matter of the contract