THE INDIAN CONTRACT ACT, 1872

Contract

THE INDIAN CONTRACT ACT, 1872

   As per ICAI (The Indian Institute Of Charted Accountant Of India).  

       The term contract is defined under section 2(h) of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 as-

“an agreement enforceable by law”.

The contract consists of two essential elements:

(i) an agreement, and

(ii) its enforceability by law.

Here is the examples of Contract 🔽🔽
       

(i) Agreement - The term ‘agreement’ given in Section 2(e) of the Act is defined as- “every promise and every set of promises, forming the consideration for each other”. 

 To have an insight into the definition of agreement, we need to understand promise.

Promise -

 Section 2 (b) defines promise as-

 “when the person to whom the proposal is made signifies his assent there to, the proposal is said to be accepted. Proposal when accepted, becomes a promise”.

and that other party gives his acceptance thereto of course for mutual consideration.

 Agreement = Offer/Proposal + Acceptance

(ii) Enforceability by law – An agreement to become a contract must give rise to a legal obligation which means a duly enforceable by law.

Thus from above definitions it can be concluded that –

Contract -
            Accepted proposal/Agreement.         +Enforceability by law

On elaborating the above two concepts, it is obvious that contract comprises of an agreement which is a promise or a set of reciprocal promises, that a promise is the acceptance of a proposal giving rise to a 

binding contract. 

Further, section 2(h) requires an agreement to be worthy of being enforceable by law 

before it is called ‘contract’.

Where parties have made a binding contract, they created rights and obligations between themselves.

Example: A agrees with B to sell car for `2 lacs to B. Here A is under an obligation to give car to B and B has the right to receive the car on payment of `2 lacs and also B is under an obligation to pay `2 lacs to A and A has a right to receive `2 lacs.

So Law of Contract deals with only such legal obligations which has resulted from agreements. Such obligation must be contractual in nature. However some obligations are outside the purview of the law of contract.

Example: An obligation to maintain wife and children, an order of the court of law etc. These are status obligations and so out of the scope of the Contract Act.

Formore examples click here this is not a fake link ▶▶ Contract examples

As per ICSI - ( The Institute of Company Secretary of India). 

THE INDIAN CONTRACT ACT, 1872
The Law of Contract constitutes the most important branch or Mercantile or
Commercial Law. It affects everybody, more so, trade, commerce and industry.

 It's MEANING AND NATURE OF CONTRACT

The Indian Contract Act mostly deals with the general principles and rules
governing contracts. The Act is divisible into two parts. The first part (Section 1-75)
deals with the general principles of the law oft contract, and therefore applies to all
contracts irespective of their nature. The second part (Sections 124-238) deals with
certain special kinds of contracts, namely contracts of Indemnity and Guarantee,
Bailment, Pledge, and Agency.
The term contract has been defined by various authors in the following manner.
A contract is an agreement creating and defining obligations between n
parties.                                          -Salmond

"A contract is an agreement enforceable at law, made between two or mo
persons, by which rignis are acquired oy One or more to acts or forbearances on the part of the other or others".
Every agreement and promise enforceable at law is a contract".                      -Anson

The Indian Contract Act has defined contract in Section 2(n) as an agreement
enforceable by law. here definitions indicate that a contract essentially consists of two distinct parts. there must be an agreement. Secondly, such an agreement must be enforceable by law. To be enforceable, an agreement must be coupled with an obligation.

A Contract therefore, is a combination of the two elements: 

(1) an agreement and
(2) an obligation.

Agreement
An agreement gives birth to a contract. As per Section 2(e) of the Indian Contract
Act "every promise and every set of promises, forming the consideration for each
other, is an agreement. It is evident from the definition given above that an
agreement is based on a promise.

 What is a promise?

 According to Section 2(b) of the Indian Contract Act "when the person to whom the proposal is made signifies his assent thereto, the proposal is said to be accepted. A proposal, when accepted, becomes a promise. An agreement, therefore, comes into existence when one party makes a proposal or offer to the other party and that other party signifies his assent
thereto. In nutshell, an agreement is the sum total of offer and acceptance."

As per my study -

         Contract - As per Sec. 2(h) of INDIAN CONTRACT ACT,1872, an agreement enforceable by law is known as contract

Contract essentials are as follows -

  [1] An agreement /Offer and acceptance

  [2] Enforceability of contract

For examples click here - https://contractualrelation.blogspot.com/2020/03/example-based-on-contract-agrees-with-b.html?m=1Contract examples by author HOTCHOCO

       Agreement -
                        As per sec. 2(b) of Indian Contract Act, 1872, "Every promise or a set of promises forming consideration " is known as  Agreement.

   Promise.  -
                      As per sec.  2(b) of Indian Contract Act, 1872, "When a proposal give to whom signifies his assent 'to do ' or 'not to do' something and is to be accepted, when the proposal is accepted becomes promise.