Offer and Acceptance (UGC/NET)

Letter is the most feasible, secured and perfect way to communicate an acceptance. Letter, being in written, constitutes a proof of the acceptance.

Under the Indian Contract Act, performance of contract includes actual performance or offer to perform. Offer of promise is when the promisor offers performance of his obligation under the contract at the proper time and place.

A contract implied by law is known as a quasi contract. A quasi contract is not an actual contract but is a legal substitute formed to impose equity between two parties. This contract is made when a court finds it appropriate to create an obligation upon a non-contracting party to avoid injustice and to ensure fairness.

A contract is deemed to be made where the letter of acceptance is transmitted by the acceptor.

When both parties of a contract (promisor and promisee) fulfil the legal obligations which are created under a contract, it is called performance of contract. These promises which form consideration or the part of the consideration for each other are called reciprocal promises. As per Section 2(f) of the Indian Contract Act, promises which form the consideration or the part of consideration for each other are called reciprocal promises.

All of the above are valid methods by which an offer can be revoked or cancelled.

A nudum pactum is a Latin phrase which means bare or naked promise. It refers to a promise that is not legally enforceable for want of consideration.

Keeping an agreement in a drawer is an evidence of the fact that the acceptor had mentally accepted but had not expressed his mental determination and retention of the agreement. Thus, it is not sufficient acceptance.

The display of goods in a shop with price tags attached is not an offer. It is merely an invitation to offer. The customer makes an offer to buy, subject to acceptance by shopkeeper.

Acceptance should be made in a manner prescribed by the offeror in the contract. No such provision has been prescribed under the contract law that the acceptance in all cases should be through registered post.

According to Section 58 of the Indian Contract Act, in case of an alternative offer and acceptance (one branch of which is legal and the other illegal), the legal branch alone can be enforced. Illegal will be void. Thus, the contract is valid to deliver rice and void to deliver smuggled opium.

All of the above are implied offers.

Under the law of contract, an agreement is a promise forming the consideration for each other. When an agreement is brought about by compulsion, it is enforceable by law. Where an agreement under the contract act is not enforceable by law, it is a void agreement. Void means not valid.

Section 2(b) of the Indian Contract Act states that when a person to whom the proposal is made signifies his assent, the proposal is said to be accepted. Thus, an offer may be accepted only by the person to whom it is made.

It is a Latin term which means meeting of minds. If two parties enter into an agreement, both parties must have the same understanding of the terms used in the agreement.