Lecture-1

Law of Contracts-I
Objectives of the Course
• Every man in his day to day life from dawn to dusk makes a variety of contracts. Man’s contract
making activities increases with the increasing trade, commerce and industry. In a way living in a
modern society would be impossible if the law does not recognize this contract making power of a
person. Law of Contracts is significant for attaining business processes interoperability and
enforcing their proper enactment.

• The conferment and protection by the law of this contract making power of persons gives them a
considerable leeway to strike the best bargain for the contract making persons. In a way they are
permitted to regulate and define their relations in a best possible manner they choose. However,
the contours of contractual relations in a feudal, colonial, and capitalist society of pre-
independence India cannot necessarily be the same in an independent Indian society. Whatever
may be the nature of a given society, the contractual relations, as are obtained in that society, are
governed by certain principles which are more or less of a general and basic nature. In India, these
general principles are statutized in the form of the Indian Contract Act 1872.

• This course is designed to acquaint the students with the conceptual and operational parameters of
these general principles of contractual relations.

• Specific enforcement of contract is an important aspect of the law of contracts. Analysis of the
kinds of contracts that can be specifically enforced and the method of enforcement also forms a
significant segment of this study.

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Law of Contracts-I
COURSE OUTLINE
• MODULE – 1 FORMATION OF CONTRACTS (Ss 1-9)
• MODULE – 2 CONSIDERATION (Ss 2,10,25)
• MODULE – 3 CAPACITY (Ss 11 & 12 )
• MODULE – 4 CONSENT (Ss 13 – 22)
• MODULE – 5 LEGALITY OF OBJECT (VOID AGREEMENTS) (Ss 23 –
30)
• MODULE – 6 CONTINGENT CONTRACTS (Ss 31 – 36)
• MODULE –7 PERFORMANCE AND DISCHARGE OF CONTRACTS (Ss
37– 67)
• MODULE – 8 QUASI CONTRACTS (Ss 68 – 72)
• MODULE – 9 CONSEQUENCES OF BREACH OF CONTRACTS (Ss 73
– 75)
• MODULE –10 SPECIFIC RELIEF ACT 1963 (Ss 1 – 41)
• MODULE-11 E-CONTRACTS AND GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS

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Law of Contracts-I
Suggested Readings

1. Anson (2002) Anson’s Law of Contract, New York: Oxford University Press.
2. Avtar Singh (2005) Law of Contract, Lucknow: Eastern Book Company.
3. Cheshire (2001) Law of Contract, London: Butterworths.
4. Chitty (1999) Chitty on Contracts, London: Sweet & Maxwell.
5. Cunningham & Shephard (2009), Commentaries on Contract Act, Delhi: Law Publishers
(India) Pvt Ltd.
6. GCV Subba Rao (2003) Law of Contract and Specific Relief Acts, Hyderabad: S Gogia &
Co.
7. Pollock and Mulla (2001) Law of Contract and Specific Relief Acts, New Delhi:
Butterworths.
8. Sujan (2000) Interpretation of Contract, New Delhi: Universal Law Publishing Pvt Ltd.
9. T S Venkatesha Iyer (2005) Law of Contracts and Tenders, Hyderabad: S Gogia & Co.
10. Treitel The Law of Contracts, London: Sweet and Maxwell.

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Law of Contracts-I
• What is Law?
• In physical and natural sciences:
• In practical and moral sciences:

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Law of Contracts-I
• Classification of Law: Public and
Private
• Private Law: Substantive Law and
Adjective Law
• Right: Right in rem and right in
personam
• Law of Obligation:
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Law of Contracts-I
• Juristic concept of contract has two constituent
elements:
i. Obligation and
ii. Agreement.

• Justification for the enforcement of a contract:

i. Principle of moral justification
ii. Principle of economic justification

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