Question 1 (a)
True or false: illegal and void agreements; mistake of law; silence as acceptance
9 marks
- Time to write
- About 18 minutes
From an older CBCS paper
Question
Question 1 (a) · 9 marksGiving brief reasons, State whether each statement below is True or False:
Illegal agreements are all void, but void agreements are not necessarily all illegal.
A mistake as to the law of the land is not excusable.
As a mode of acceptance, silence can not be prescribed.
Reworded from the university paper; the task is the same. The original paper belongs to the University of Delhi. See DU's question bank.
Before you write
Read off the question and its marks
Read from the question
- State whether…A verdict for each (True or False), then the reason that decides it.
What the paper leaves open
The only copy of this paper found is cut off at the right edge of the page; the few words lost there are read from the sense and from the Hindi version of the question. The mark for this part is not legible on the copy; it is reckoned here at 9 marks, the paper's own split for its other questions.
Write it in this order
The parts stand alone: start with the one you are surest of.
A step that gives the answer away stays hidden: tap it to see it.
- Read each statement; find the word that decides it 1 min
- 1 (i) Illegal and void agreements 3 marks 5 min
- 2 (ii) Mistake of Indian law 3 marks 5 min
- 3 (iii) Silence is not acceptance 3 marks 5 min
- Check: a verdict and a reason for every statement 2 min
Short on time? A few lines on every part beat a full answer to one: each part is capped at its own marks.
Try it first. About 18 minutes for 9 marks. Write it out, then open the solution.
Solution
Hover or tap a marked figure, like 72,000, to see how it is made and where else it appears.
(i)True A promise to pay someone to forge a document is forbidden by law: it is illegal, the court will not enforce it or the dealings built on it, and those involved may be punished. A bet between two persons, each promising to pay the other according to the result of a cricket match, is a wager: it is void, since the law will not enforce it (s. 2(g)), but nothing in it is forbidden. Every illegal agreement is therefore void, while many void agreements are not illegal.
(ii)True Ignorance of the law of the land is no excuse. If a landlord and a tenant settle an account on the shared but wrong belief that Indian law caps the rent increase at five per cent, neither can later escape the settlement by pointing to that mistake: a mistake about Indian law does not make the contract voidable (s. 21). A mistake about a foreign law is different, and is treated like a mistake of fact.
(iii)True An offer cannot be turned into a contract by the offeree's silence. An offeror who writes "if I do not hear from you by Friday, I will take it that you agree" cannot hold the other party bound when no reply comes; acceptance has to be communicated by some act, as Felthouse v. Bindley holds. The position is different only where the offeree's own earlier conduct shows that his silence was meant as consent. So the offeror cannot make silence the mode of acceptance.
Where the 9 marks sit
| # | Component | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | (i) Illegal and void agreements | 3 |
| 2 | (ii) Mistake of Indian law | 3 |
| 3 | (iii) Silence is not acceptance | 3 |
| Total | 9 |
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