Law of Contract and Specific Relief Notes | LL.B. (3 years) Semester 1 | Mumbai University | munotes

Contents

Module I Introduction, Offer and Acceptance, Types of Contracts including E-Contracts

1. What a Contract Is, and Why the Law Enforces a Promise 1
2. History and Nature of a Contractual Obligation 5
3. The Contemporary Relevance of the Law of Contract 11
4. Section 2: the Interpretation Clause that Carries the Whole Act 16
5. Agreement, Contract, and the Difference that Decides Cases 20
6. Proposal: What an Offer Is, and What Only Looks Like One 24
7. Communication of Proposal, Acceptance and Revocation 29
8. Revocation of Proposals and Acceptances 33
9. Acceptance Must Be Absolute and Unqualified 38
10. Acceptance by Performing Conditions, and Implied Promises 42
11. Contracts Between Absent Parties: the Post, the Telephone and the Inbox 46
12. Standard Form Agreements 50
13. E-Contracts and the Scheme of the Information Technology Act 54
14. Legal Recognition of Electronic Records and Electronic Signatures 59
15. Electronic Governance 64
16. Section 10A: the Validity of Contracts Formed Through Electronic Means 69
17. Attribution, Acknowledgment and Despatch of Electronic Records 73
18. Secure Electronic Records, Secure Signatures and Security Procedures 78
19. Clickwrap and Shrink Wrap Contracts 83
20. Contingent Contracts 88
21. Quasi Contracts: Obligations Resembling Those Created by Contract 93

Module II Essential Ingredients for Enforceability

1. Section 10: What Agreements Are Contracts 99
2. Competency of Parties, and the Age of Majority 104
3. A Minor's Agreement Is Void Ab Initio 108
4. The Minor's Position: Necessaries, Restitution and Ratification 114
5. Persons of Unsound Mind, and Persons Disqualified by Law 120
6. Consent and Free Consent 125
7. Coercion 130
8. Undue Influence 135
9. Setting Aside a Contract Induced by Undue Influence 141
10. Fraud 145
11. Misrepresentation 151
12. Voidability of Agreements Without Free Consent 156
13. Mistake of Fact and Mistake of Law 161
14. Consideration: What It Is, and the Rules It Obeys 167
15. Agreements Without Consideration Are Void, Unless 172
16. Privity of Contract and Privity of Consideration 178
17. Unlawful Consideration and Object 183
18. Agreements Void in Part, and Severability 189
19. Agreements in Restraint of Marriage 193
20. Agreements in Restraint of Trade 197
21. Agreements in Restraint of Legal Proceedings 203
22. Agreements Void for Uncertainty 208
23. Wagering Agreements 213

Module III Performance, Discharge and Breach of Contract, and the Remedies

1. The Obligation to Perform, and Who Is Bound 219
2. Offer of Performance: Tender, and Its Effect 223
3. Effect of Refusal of a Party to Perform Wholly 228
4. By Whom a Contract Must Be Performed 233
5. Joint Liabilities and Joint Rights 237
6. Time and Place for Performance 243
7. Performance of Reciprocal Promises 248
8. Time as the Essence of the Contract 254
9. Impossibility of Performance, and Frustration 259
10. The Doctrine of Frustration in Indian Law 265
11. Reciprocal Promises to Do Legal and Illegal Things 270
12. Appropriation of Payments 274
13. Discharge by Agreement: Novation, Rescission and Alteration 278
14. Remission and Waiver of Performance 282
15. Consequences of Rescission, and Restoration of Benefit 286
16. Communicating Rescission, and the Promisee's Neglect 291
17. Discharge of a Contract: the Whole Picture 295
18. Breach of Contract, Actual and Anticipatory 299
19. Compensation for Loss or Damage Caused by Breach 304
20. Remoteness of Damage, and the Duty to Mitigate 309
21. Liquidated Damages and Penalty 314
22. Compensation to a Party Rightfully Rescinding 322
23. Types of Damages, and the Remedies for Breach 326

Module IV Specific Relief

1. The Origin of Specific Relief as an Equitable Relief 331
2. The Scheme of the Specific Relief Act 1963 336
3. Recovering Possession of Immovable Property 341
4. Recovering Possession of Movable Property 346
5. Specific Performance After 2018: the Rule, Not the Discretion 351
6. Defences in Suits for Relief Based on Contract 357
7. Contracts Connected with Trusts, and Specific Performance of Part 361
8. Rights of a Purchaser or Lessee Against a Person with No Title 367
9. Contracts That Cannot Be Specifically Enforced 372
10. The Court's Power to Engage Experts 377
11. Who May Obtain, and Against Whom It May Be Enforced 382
12. Personal Bars to Relief 388
13. Substituted Performance of Contract 394
14. Infrastructure Projects, Special Courts and Expeditious Disposal 399
15. Compensation With or Instead of Specific Performance 404
16. Specific Performance of Awards and Testamentary Directions 410
17. Rectification of Instruments 414
18. Rescission of Contracts 419
19. Cancellation of Instruments 425
20. Declaratory Decrees 430
21. Preventive Relief, and the Kinds of Injunction 435
22. Perpetual and Mandatory Injunctions 440
23. Damages in Lieu of, or in Addition to, an Injunction 445
24. When an Injunction Cannot Be Granted 449
25. Injunction to Perform a Negative Agreement 454
26. The Closing Sections of the Act, and What Was Repealed 459