Discuss the essential elements of a valid contract? Essay

AnsSection 2(h) of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 defines a contract as an engagement enforceable by fairness. Section 2(e) defines savvy as every herald and every set of promises forming consideration for each other. Section2(b) defines promise in the word When the person to whom the proposal ismade signifies his assent thereto, the proposal is said to be accepted. A proposalwhen accepted becomes a promise.From the above definition of promise, it is obvious that an obligation is anaccepted proposal. The two elements of an organisation argon1 Offer of a proposal.2 An acceptance of that ecstasy or proposal.What agreement are contracts? All agreements are not studied under the Indian Contract Act, assome of them are not contracts. The Contract Act is the law of thoseagreements, which bring out obligations, and in case of a breech of a promise byone party to the agreement, the other has a legal remedy. Thus, a contract consists of two elements,1.An agreement2.Legal Obligations i .e. It should be enforceable at lawHowever, there are some agreements, which are not enforceable in a law court.Such agreements donot rise to contractual obligations and are not contracts.Essential Elements of Valid ContractsAll agreements are contracts if they are made by free consent of parties,Competent to contract, for a rule-governed consideration and with a lawful object and are not here by expresslydeclared to be void.Thus the essential elements of a valid contract can be summed up as follows1.Agreement2.Intensions to create legal relationships3.Free and genuine consents4.Parties competent to contract5.Lawful considerations6.Lawful Objects7.Agreements not declared void or illegal8.Certainty of meaning9.Possibility of performance10.Necessary illegal formalitiesAgreementAs already mentioned, to constitute a contract there essential be an agreement. An agreement is composed of two elements, Offer and Acceptance.The party making the offer is cognize as a offeror, the party to w hom the offer ismade is know as the offree. Thus, there are essentially to be two parties to anagreement. They both must be intellection of the same thing in the same sense. Inother words, there must be consensus-ad-idem.Intensions to Create Legal Relationships As already mentioned there should be an intension on the part of the parties to the agreement to create a legalrelationship. An agreement is purely social or domestic nature is not a contract.Free and Genuine admitThe consent of the parties to the agreement mustbe free and genuine. The consent of the parties should not be obtained bymisrepresentation, fraud, undue influence, coercion or mistake. If the consent isobtained by any of these flaws, then the contract is not valid.Parties Competent to ContractThese parties to a contract should be competent to enter to a contract. According to section 11 ,every person iscompetent to contract if he, (1) Is of the age of majority, (2) Is plump mind, and (3) Is not disqualified from c ontracting by any law to which he is subject. Thus,there may be a flaw in capacity of parties to the contract. The flaw in capacitymay be due to minority, lunacy, idiocy, drunkenness or status. If a party to acontract suffers from any of these flaws, the contract is anunenforceable except in certain exceptional circumstances.Lawful ConsiderationsThe agreement must be back up by consideration onboth sides. Each party to the agreement must give or promise something and receive something or promise in return. Consideration is the price for which thepromise of the order is sought. However, this price need not be in terms of money. In case promise is not supported by consideration, the promise will beNudum Pactum (a bare promise) and is not enforceable at law. Moreover theconsideration must be real and lawful.Lawful ObjectsThe object of the agreement must be lawful and not one which the law dis-approves.Agreements not Declared Illegal or Void There are certain agreements, which have bee n expressly declared illegal or void by the law. In such cases,even if the agreement possesses all the element of a valid agreement, theagreement will not be enforceable at law.Certainty of MeaningThe meaning of agreement must be certain or capable of being certain otherwise the agreement will not be enforceable at law.