Indian Contract
Act, 1872
Twenty-seven chapter notes covering the foundational law of obligations — proposal, acceptance, consideration, capacity, free consent, the four classical vitiating factors, performance, breach and damages, and the special contracts of indemnity, guarantee, bailment, pledge, and agency. Section first, ingredients second, leading case third.
The 1872 Code — every promise the law will and will not enforce.
The Indian Contract Act sits at the foundation of every commercial and civil transaction. Sections 1 to 75 set out the general principles — what makes an agreement, when an agreement becomes a contract, and when a contract is voidable, void, or unenforceable. Sections 124 to 238 deal with the special contracts of indemnity, guarantee, bailment, pledge, and agency.
These notes anchor every chapter to its statutory section first, then place the rule in the four-part scheme — formation, validity, performance, and remedies. Where the SRA, the SGA, or the Partnership Act overlay a contract-specific rule, the overlay is flagged. The four classical vitiating factors — coercion, undue influence, fraud, misrepresentation — are read together with the doctrine of mistake under Sections 20–22.
Each chapter is designed to be read in twelve to fifteen minutes and to leave the reader with the statutory section, the ingredients the court will look for, the illustrations drawn from the bare Act, and the leading authority.
How to read these notes
Start with the section.
Every chapter opens with the precise Section of the Indian Contract Act. Read it. Contract Act writing is statute-led — a question on Section 25, Section 19, or Section 73 is testing whether you know the section, not whether you can paraphrase it.
Place the rule in the four-part scheme.
Every contract question slots into formation, validity, performance, or remedies. The chapter's blurb tells you which. A rule of formation cannot be answered with a remedies argument; a remedies question cannot be solved by relitigating formation.
Test on the leading case.
If you can restate the holding of Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball, Mohori Bibee v. Dharmodas Ghose, or Hadley v. Baxendale in two sentences, you understand the chapter. If not, return to the statutory section and rebuild from there.
All 27 chapters, in 6 groups
Sequenced through the Act's natural structure — every chapter sits in a doctrinal cluster.Foundations & Formation
Sections 1–10 — the elements of a contract
Before any agreement becomes binding. Definitions and applicability, the meaning of proposal and acceptance, communication and revocation, intention to create legal relations, and the threshold elements that distinguish an agreement from a mere proposal.
Consideration, Capacity & Consent
Sections 10–22 — what makes an agreement enforceable
The validity-tier inquiries. Lawful consideration and the privity rule, capacity to contract under Section 11 with the Mohori Bibee bar on minors, free consent, and the four classical vitiating factors of coercion, undue influence, fraud, and misrepresentation, plus mistake under Sections 20-22.
Acceptance — Communication, Modes, Revocation
ICA · 05Consideration — Definition, Essentials, Exceptions, Stranger to Contract
ICA · 06Capacity to Contract — Minors, Persons of Unsound Mind, Disqualified Persons
ICA · 07Free Consent — Coercion, Undue Influence, Fraud, Misrepresentation, Mistake
ICA · 08Lawful Object and Consideration (Section 23) — Public Policy Doctrine
ICA · 09Void Agreements — Restraint of Marriage, Trade, Legal Proceedings, Wagering
ICA · 10Contingent Contracts (Sections 31–36)
Lawful Object, Void & Voidable Agreements
Sections 23–30 — agreements the law refuses to enforce
When public policy or express statutory prohibition refuses enforcement. Lawful and unlawful object and consideration, agreements without consideration under Section 25, restraint of marriage and trade and legal proceedings, agreements by way of wager, and uncertain or impossible agreements.
Contingent Contracts, Performance & Discharge
Sections 31–67 — execution and the end of the contract
How a contract operates over time. Contingent contracts, time and place of performance, performance by joint promisors, appropriation of payments, the doctrine of frustration under Section 56, novation and rescission, and the rules on accord and satisfaction.
Doctrine of Frustration — Section 56 (Impossibility of Performance)
ICA · 15Breach of Contract — Anticipatory and Actual
ICA · 16Remedies for Breach — Damages, Specific Performance, Injunction, Rescission
ICA · 17Damages — Hadley v Baxendale Rule, Liquidated Damages, Penalty (Section 74)
Breach, Damages & Quasi-Contracts
Sections 68–75 — when promise meets failure
Liability when a contract is broken. The Hadley v. Baxendale rule on remoteness, liquidated damages versus penalty under Section 74, and the five quasi-contractual situations under Sections 68-72 where the law imposes obligation in the absence of an express contract.
Special Contracts — Indemnity, Guarantee, Bailment, Pledge, Agency
Sections 124–238 — the named contracts
The five classical special contracts. Indemnity and guarantee with the surety's rights and discharge, bailment and pledge with the bailee's lien and the pawnee's right of sale, and the law of agency including types of agents, the principal's liability for unauthorised acts, and the termination of agency.