True or false: voidable contract; general offer; transactions collateral to illegal agreements

(i)True Under section 2(i) of the Indian Contract Act, 1872, an agreement is a voidable contract when the law will enforce it at the option of one or more of the parties, but not at the option of the other party or parties. It is therefore a valid contract until the party entitled to avoid it chooses to do so; if that party does not reject it, it remains binding. It becomes void only when it is rejected.

(ii)False A general offer is made to the public at large, so anyone can accept it by doing the desired act: under section 8, anyone performing the conditions of the offer is taken to have accepted it. Until it is withdrawn it is a continuing offer that can be accepted by anyone at any time. In Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball Co. (1893), a reward advertised to anyone who caught influenza after using the smoke ball was claimable by every person who did so. A general offer can thus be accepted by any number of persons.

(iii)True An illegal agreement is forbidden by law, and the illegality extends to transactions collateral to it: lotteries, for example, are illegal, and even collateral transactions to them are tainted with illegality. A transaction that merely aids or is connected with an illegal agreement is therefore itself unenforceable.