Minors contracts: a major problem with the Indian contract act, 1872

Swaminathan, Shivprasad and Surana, Ragini (2021) Minors contracts: a major problem with the Indian contract act, 1872. Statute Law Review, 42 (1). pp. 101-115. ISSN 0144-3593

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Abstract

Section 10 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 stipulates that all agreements made with the ‘free consent’ of parties who are ‘competent’ to contract are enforceable as contracts. Section 11 declares that minors are not competent to contract. While the Act goes on to specifically set out the consequences of vitiated ‘consent’ in sections 19, 19A, and 20, it omits spelling out the consequences of contracting with a minor. Nevertheless, a decision of the Privy Council, Mohori Bibee v. Dharmodas Ghose (1903) read the Act as having given a definitive answer to this question and took the view that minors’ contracts were void ab initio (not voidable or void) which meant that neither party could enforce it, nor could they seek to be restituted to their original positions under provisions stipulating restitution in the case of either voidable (section 64) or void (section 65) contracts.

Item Type: Article
Keywords: Indian Contract Act, 1872 | Section 10
Subjects: Social Sciences and humanities > Social Sciences > Law and Legal Studies
JGU School/Centre: Jindal Global Law School
Depositing User: Arjun Dinesh
Date Deposited: 29 Apr 2022 11:40
Last Modified: 29 Apr 2022 11:43
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/slr/hmy034
URI: https://pure.jgu.edu.in/id/eprint/2746

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