Certainty

Hello my reader friends. This is one more blog in the series of Law of Contract. This blog is discussing about "Certainty". Please read this blog till the end and share it with all law students. These are the notes for preparing exams of Law degree. 

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Certainty:

According to Section 29 of the Contract Act, “Agreements the meaning of which are not certain or not capable of being made certain are void.” In order to give rise to a valid contract the terms of the agreement, must not be vague or uncertain. For a valid contract, the terms and conditions of an agreement must be clear and certain.

The terms and regulations being made in a contract should be stated clearly and understood by the parties of the contract. If the agreement is not certain, it would be no longer valid.

Agreements to form valid contracts must be certain, possible and they should not be uncertain, vague or impossible. An agreement to do something impossible is void under Sec. 56.

Hence the Court will not enforce a Contract, the terms of which are uncertain, vague or illusory. More over, there can never be an agreement to agree in future since there cannot be a Contract to make a contract.

A term in a Contract which destroys the Contract itself is void.

Example:

1. A promised to sell 20 books to B. It is not clear which books A has promised to sell. The agreement is void because the terms are not clear.

2. A agrees to sell B a hundred tons of oil. It is not clear what is the kind of oil. The agreement is void because of it uncertainty.

3. O agreed to purchase a van from S on hire-purchase terms. The price was to be paid over two years. Held there was no contract as the terms were not certain about rate of interest and mode of payment.

4. For example, if the guest wants to stay in a hotel, the guest needs to inform how many days he or she is staying at the hotel, the type of room, and also the date when he or she is going to stay and the number of days he or she is staying.

5. Consider this statement “I agree to pay Mr. X a desirable amount for his house at so and so location”. Is this a valid contract even if all the parties agree to this term? Of course, it can’t be as “desirable amount” is not well defined and has no certainty of meaning. Thus we say that a valid contract must have certainty of Meaning.