ESSENTIALS OF VALID CONTRACT

Firstly an offer is made then it’s been accepted it forms a

promise ,later a promise made with consideration forms an
agreement, now if this agreement is enforceable by law it
becomes a contract.

According to Sec 10 of the Indian Contract Act,1872.All

Agreements are contracts if they are made by – free consent,
competent to contract, for a lawful consideration ,with lawful
object and not hereby expressly declared to be void.

1) Free Consent : A consent is said to be free when it is not

caused by Coercion, Undue Influence ,Fraud
Misrepresentation or Mistake .It should have Consensus-ad
–idem- When both the parties think about the same matter
in the same way and express their opinion at the same
moment.(meeting of mind).[Sec 14]
Caselaws-

Taylors Vs Portington- there is a contract between A and B to

which A has to modernize his house and B has to join as tenant,
If the mode of modernization is satisfactory to B. Now the issue
here is whether this can be considered as a valid contract the
court decides that there is no certainity and therefore it is void.
There is no consensus.
Balfour Vs Balfour-In this case the defendant who was
employed on a Govt job in Ceylon , went to England with his
wife on leave. For health reasons the wife was unable to join the
husband again to Ceylon. The husband promised to pay 30 euro
per month to his wife as maintenance for the period she had to
live apart. The husband having failed to pay this amount, the
husband was sued by the wife for the same.in this case it was
held that there was no intention to create a legal relationship
hence the husband was not held liable.

2) Lawful consideration: consideration must not be immoral,

unlawful and opposed by the public policy of India.

3) Capacity: Sec 11 specifies who are competent to contract.

Every person is competent to enter into a contract who is of
the age of majority, has sound mind (person who is of
unsound mind can enter into contract during his lucid
interval) and is not disqualified from contracting by any
law to which he is subject. Indian is not competent to enter
into contract with alien enemies, foreign sovereigns and
accredited representative of foreign state .insolvents and
convicts are incompetent to contract.
4) Lawful object: the object of the contract should be legal.
Consideration deemed to be unlawful if it is forbidden by
law, fraudulent, involves injury to a person or property of
another, if the matter would not abide by the provisions of
law and if the court regards it as immoral or opposed to
public policy of India.

5) Possibility of Performance: A contract is considered to be

valid depending upon its possibility of performance. The
terms of agreement should be certain or should be capable
of being made certain i.e. an agreement to do an act which
is impossible for which it can’t be enforceable by law.

6) Format: Contract may be in oral or written form, but for

certain contracts it is necessary to be in a written form and
to be registered and if these formalities are not carried out
then the contract becomes unenforceable by law.