VOID  AND VOIDABLE CONTRACT

The law relating to contracts in India is governed by The Indian Contract Act, 1872. However the Contract Act does not purport to codify the entire law relating to contracts, the Act also specifically preserves any usage or custom of the trade or any incident of any contract not inconsistent with the provisions of the Act. The law of contract confines itself to the enforcement of voluntarily created civil obligation. The law of contract is not able to take care of the whole range of agreements, Many agreements remain outside the purview because they do not fulfill the requirement of a contract.

A Contract is an agreement; an agreement is a promise and a promise is an accepted proposal. Thus, every agreement is the result of a proposal from one side and its acceptance by the other.

An agreement is regarded as a contract when it is enforceable by law. Section 10 of the Act deals with the conditions of enforceability, According to this section, an agreement is a contract if it is made for some consideration, between parties who are competent to contract, with free consent and for a lawful object.

When an agreement is enforceable at law, it becomes a contract. Based on validity, there are several types of contract, i.e. valid contract, void contract, illegal contract, etc. Void contracts and voidable contracts are quite commonly misconstrued, but they are different. A void Contract, implies a contract that lacks enforceability by law, whereas a Voidable Contract, alludes to a contract wherein one party has the right to enforce or rescind the contract, i.e. the party has to right to put the contract to end.

Before entering into a contract, the parties must be aware of the types of contract, which may be helpful in understanding their rights and duties. So, take a read of this article, in which we have provided the fundamental differences between a void contract and a voidable contract.