What is a Contract? The essential elements of a valid Contract as per section 10 of ICA,1872

What is a Valid Contract?

according to  Section10 : All agreements are contract if they are made by free consent of parties, competent to contract, for a lawfully consideration and with a lawfully object and are not expressly declared to be void.

10 essential elements of a valid contract

These are the following 10 essential elements of a valid contract:-

(1) Offer and Acceptance  : In order to create a valid Contract there must be a lawful offer by one party and a lawful acceptance of the same by other party.

(2)  Intention to create legal relationship  :  In case there is no such intention on the part of parties, there is no contract.

Example- the leading case in this point

Balfour Vs Balfour 1919

An agreement to lunch at a friend's house is not an agreement intending to create a legal relations, agreement between husband and wife, generally lack the intention to create legal relation.

(3)  Lawful Consideration  :  Consideration is a essential element in a contract. An agreement without consideration subject to certain exception is void. Consideration is the price of which the promise of which is brought.

(4)  Capacity of parties  :   The parties to an agreement must be competent to contract. If either of parties does not have the capacity to contract, the contractors not valid. According to Section 11 every person is competent to contract who is of the age of majority, of sound mind and not disqualified from contracting by any law.

(5)  Free consent  :  Consent means the parties must have been agreed upon the same thing in the same sencee. According to Section 13 , two or more person are said to consent when they agreed upon the same thing in the same sence. According to Section 14 Consent is said to be free when it is not caused by (a) Coercion,  (b) Undue influence,  (c) Fraud,  (d) Mis-representation, and (e) Mistake.

(6)  Lawful object  :  The object of an agreement must be lawful. The object has nothing to do with consideration. the object is said to be unlawful if:-

1. If it is forbidden by law.
2. It is of such Nature that if permitted it would defeat the provision of any law.
3. It is forbidden.
4. It involves the injury to the person or property of any other.
5. The court regard it as immoral or opposed to public policy.

(7)  Certainty of meaning  :  According to section 29, Agreement the meaning of which is not certain or capable of being made certain are void. The meaning of agreement must be certain.

(8)  Possibility of Performance  :  If the act is impossible in itself physically or legally, it cannot be enforce at law 

example- MR. A agree with B to discover treasure by magic. Such agreement is not enforceable.

(9)  Not to be void or illegal   :  The agreement through satisfying all the condition for a valid contract must not have been expressively declared void by any law in force in the country. Agreement mentioned in the section 24 to 30 of the act have been expressively declared to be void for example agreement in restraint of trade, marriage, legal, proceeding etc.

(10) Legal Formalities  :  An oral contract is a perfectly call d contract, except in those cases where writing, registration etc. is  required by some statute. Registration is required in case of documents coming within the scope of section 17 of the registration Act.

All the elements mentioned above must be present in order to make a valid contract. If any one of them is absent the agreement does not become a contract