Impossibility of performance as a ground to avoid the contract: critical analysis based on Indian case law

ANAND J NAIR
3 BA LLB ‘C’
1316211
SCHOOL OF LAW, CHRIST UNIVERSITY
Submitted to- Ms Jayanthi Bai H.L

IMPOSSIBILITY OF PERFORMANCE.
INTRODUCTION
In some cases, a contract can be ended even before the parties have the chance to fulfill their contractual duties and responsibilities. This is known as “contract termination” or “termination of contract”, and can be based on many different grounds. Some common grounds for contract termination may include: * Fraud: Fraud is a deception deliberately practiced in order to secure unfair or unlawful gain . As a legal construct, fraud is both a civil wrong (i.e., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud and/or recover monetary compensation) and a criminal wrong (i.e., a fraud perpetrator may be prosecuted and imprisoned by governmental authorities). Defrauding people or organizations of money or valuables is the usual purpose of fraud, but it sometimes instead involves obtaining benefits without actually depriving anyone of money or valuables, such as obtaining a drivers license by way of false statements made in an application for the sameContracts can’t be based on deception or fraud (such as fake documents, etc.) * Mistake: when a party enters into a contract, without the knowledge of the law in the country, the contract is affected by such mistakes but it is not void. A contract is not voidable because it was caused by a mistake as to any law in force in India. The reason here is that ignorance of law is not an excuse at all. However if a party is induced to enter into a contract by the mistake of law then such a contract is not valid. Illustration A and B make a contract grounded on the erroneous belief that a particular debt is barred by the Indian law of Limitation; the