Section 2(h) of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 defines a contract as an agreement enforceable by law.
Section 2(e) defines agreement as "everypromise and every set of promises forming consideration for each other." Section2(b) defines promise in the word: "When the person to whom the proposal ismade signifies his assent thereto, the proposal is said to be accepted. A proposalwhen accepted becomes a promise." From the above definition of promise, it is obvious that an agreement is anaccepted proposal.
The two elements of an agreement are: 1: - Offer of a proposal.
2: - An acceptance of that offer or proposal.
What agreement are contracts? All agreements are not studied under the Indian Contract Act, assome of them are not contracts. The Contract Act is the law of thoseagreements, which create obligations, and in case of a breech of a promise byone party to the agreement, the other has a legal remedy.
Thus, a contract consists of two elements,
1.An agreement
2.Legal Obligations i.e. It should be enforceable at lawHowever, there are some agreements, which are not enforceable in a law court.Such agreements donot rise to contractual obligations and are not contracts. Essential Elements of Valid Contracts
All agreements are contracts if they are made by free consent of parties,Competent to contract, for a lawful consideration and with a lawful object and are not here by expresslydeclared to be void.Thus the essential elements of a valid contract can be summed up as follows:
1.Agreement 2.Intensions to create legal relationships
3.Free and genuine consents
4.Parties competent to contract
5.Lawful considerations
6.Lawful Objects
7.Agreements not declared void or illegal
8.Certainty of meaning
9.Possibility of performance
10.Necessary illegal formalities
Agreement:
As already mentioned, to constitute a contract there must be an agreement. An agreement is composed of two elements, Offer and Acceptance.The