ASSESSING CONSIDERATION AS THE SOLE DETERMINANT OF CONTRACTUAL INTENTION: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LEGAL PRINCIPLES

Judges, practitioners, and academics of contract law have all engaged in passionate debate and discussion over the need for consideration in contractual disputes. Common law Academics have argued time and again that consideration should be eliminated since it cannot be considered a fundamental component of contract law. Given that consideration’s place in Indian law is the same as it is in common law, this debate is also well-known in the field of Indian contract law jurisprudence. The prevalent understanding of consideration in Indian contract law has been questioned^[1]. There is a contention that the definition of consideration found in the Indian Contract Act, 1872, deviates from the common law’s conventional understanding of consideration, which is something that can be valued objectively and encompasses promises that are subjectively expressed.

This research aims to demonstrate that subjectively expressed commitments were not intended to be covered by the Indian Contract Act. Its ongoing existence has also been explained by the fact that it fosters a particular and different type of connection between the parties to an agreement. Some believe that consideration is the sole element for determining the enforceability of a contract while others, due to its vague nature, have many a times criticized it. This legal research paper shall highlight the historical evolution of the concept of Consideration in common law and Indian law along with the debates on the requirement of Consideration while determining the Contractual intentions with criticism and justifications by various contract scholars.