FREE CONSENT AND CAPACITY TO CONTRACT

The Contract Law prescribes basic requisites for a contract to be legally enforceable, including free consent and competency of parties. The contract is void when the consent has not been genuine and obtained by coercion, fraud, misrepresentation, undue influence or mistake. Mistakes may be of facts, or law, affecting the agreements. It further provides that only persons who are not minors, of sound mind and not disqualified by any law will be competent to contract. Contracts with a minor therefore void-ab-initio, and contracts for the benefit of a minor enforceable. Analogous to this, the lunatics can contract only when they are sane. Others like alien enemy, foreign sovereigns, convicts, corporations acting beyond the scope of their power and insolvents are similarly precluded from contracting. Collectively, these provisions work to ensure fairness, protect vulnerable persons and uphold the meaning of certainty in contractual relationships.