Cover and contents

Contents

Unit I

1. Contract I: What This Paper Covers, and How to Read This Book 1
2. What a Contract Is, and Why the Law Enforces a Promise 5
3. History and Nature of a Contractual Obligation 9
4. The Contemporary Relevance of the Law of Contract 15
5. Section 2: the Interpretation Clause that Carries the Whole Act 20
6. Agreement, Contract, and the Difference that Decides Cases 24
7. Section 10: What Agreements Are Contracts 28
8. Proposal: What an Offer Is, and What Only Looks Like One 33
9. Communication of Proposal, Acceptance and Revocation 38
10. Revocation of Proposals and Acceptances 42
11. Acceptance Must Be Absolute and Unqualified 47
12. Acceptance by Performing Conditions, and Implied Promises 51
13. Contracts Between Absent Parties: the Post, the Telephone and the Inbox 55
14. Standard Form Agreements 59
15. Consideration: What It Is, and the Rules It Obeys 63
16. Agreements Without Consideration Are Void, Unless 68
17. Privity of Contract and Privity of Consideration 74
18. E-Contracts and the Scheme of the Information Technology Act 79
19. Legal Recognition of Electronic Records and Electronic Signatures 84
20. Electronic Governance 89
21. Section 10A: the Validity of Contracts Formed Through Electronic Means 94
22. Attribution, Acknowledgment and Despatch of Electronic Records 98
23. Secure Electronic Records, Secure Signatures and Security Procedures 103
24. Clickwrap and Shrink Wrap Contracts 108

Unit II

1. Competency of Parties, and the Age of Majority 113
2. A Minor's Agreement Is Void Ab Initio 117
3. The Minor's Position: Necessaries, Restitution and Ratification 123
4. Persons of Unsound Mind, and Persons Disqualified by Law 129
5. Consent and Free Consent 134
6. Coercion 139
7. Undue Influence 146
8. Setting Aside a Contract Induced by Undue Influence 152
9. Fraud 156
10. Misrepresentation 162
11. Voidability of Agreements Without Free Consent 167
12. Mistake of Fact and Mistake of Law 172
13. Unlawful Consideration and Object 178
14. Agreements Void in Part, and Severability 185
15. Agreements in Restraint of Marriage 189
16. Agreements in Restraint of Trade 193
17. Agreements in Restraint of Legal Proceedings 199
18. Agreements Void for Uncertainty 204
19. Wagering Agreements 209
20. Contingent Contracts 215

Unit III

1. The Obligation to Perform, and Who Is Bound 220
2. Offer of Performance: Tender, and Its Effect 224
3. Effect of Refusal of a Party to Perform Wholly 229
4. By Whom a Contract Must Be Performed 234
5. Joint Liabilities and Joint Rights 238
6. Time and Place for Performance 244
7. Performance of Reciprocal Promises 249
8. Time as the Essence of the Contract 255
9. Impossibility of Performance, and Frustration 260
10. The Doctrine of Frustration in Indian Law 266
11. Reciprocal Promises to Do Legal and Illegal Things 271
12. Appropriation of Payments 275
13. Discharge by Agreement: Novation, Rescission and Alteration 279
14. Remission and Waiver of Performance 283
15. Consequences of Rescission, and Restoration of Benefit 287
16. Communicating Rescission, and the Promisee's Neglect 292
17. Discharge of a Contract: the Whole Picture 296
18. Breach of Contract, Actual and Anticipatory 300

Unit IV

1. Compensation for Loss or Damage Caused by Breach 305
2. Remoteness of Damage, and the Duty to Mitigate 310
3. Liquidated Damages and Penalty 315
4. Compensation to a Party Rightfully Rescinding 323
5. Types of Damages, and the Remedies for Breach 327
6. Quasi Contracts: Obligations Resembling Those Created by Contract 332

Unit V

1. The Origin of Specific Relief as an Equitable Relief 338
2. The Scheme of the Specific Relief Act 1963 343
3. Recovering Possession of Immovable Property 348
4. Recovering Possession of Movable Property 353
5. Specific Performance After 2018: the Rule, Not the Discretion 358
6. Defences in Suits for Relief Based on Contract 364
7. Contracts Connected with Trusts, and Specific Performance of Part 368
8. Rights of a Purchaser or Lessee Against a Person with No Title 374
9. Contracts That Cannot Be Specifically Enforced 379
10. The Court's Power to Engage Experts 384
11. Who May Obtain, and Against Whom It May Be Enforced 389
12. Personal Bars to Relief 395
13. Substituted Performance of Contract 401
14. Infrastructure Projects, Special Courts and Expeditious Disposal 406
15. Compensation With or Instead of Specific Performance 411
16. Specific Performance of Awards and Testamentary Directions 417
17. Rectification of Instruments 421
18. Rescission of Contracts 426
19. Cancellation of Instruments 432
20. Declaratory Decrees 437
21. Preventive Relief, and the Kinds of Injunction 442
22. Perpetual and Mandatory Injunctions 447
23. Damages in Lieu of, or in Addition to, an Injunction 452
24. When an Injunction Cannot Be Granted 456
25. Injunction to Perform a Negative Agreement 461
26. The Closing Sections of the Act, and What Was Repealed 466