Indian Contract Act, 1872
Act of Imperial Legislative Council of India
The Indian Contract Act, 1872 governs the law of contracts in India and is the principal legislation regulating contract law in the country. It is applicable to all states of India. It outlines the circumstances under which promises made by the parties to a contract become legally binding. Section 2(h) of the Act defines a contract as an agreement that is enforceable by law.
Development and Structure
The Act was enacted on 25 April 1872 and came into force on 1 September 1872. The Act, as enacted originally, had 266 Sections, divided into 11 chapters.
General Principles of Law of Contract – Sections 01 to 75 (Chapter 1 to 6)
Contract relating to Sale of goods - Sections 76 to 123 (Chapter 7 to 10)
Contracts relating to Partnership – Sections 239 to 266 (Chapter 11)
Later, the sections of Chapter 7 and 11 were repealed, as they were incorporated into separate legislations namely, Sale of Goods Act, 1930 and the Indian Partnership Act, 1932.
At present, the Indian Contract Act can be divided into two parts:
Part 1: General Principles of Law of Contract – Sections 1 to 75 (Chapter 1 to 6)
Part 2: Deals with Special kinds of Contracts such as
Contract of Indemnity and Guarantee (Chapter 8)
Contract of Bailment and Pledge (Chapter 9)
Contract of Agency. (Chapter 10)
Important Definitions (Section 2)
1. Offer 2(a): An offer refers to a promise that is dependent on a certain act, promise, or forbearance given in exchange for the initial promise.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Indian Contract Act, 1872” is act of Imperial Legislative Council of India. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Indian, Contract and Imperial, not as a finished interpretation.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3595898. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1872, 1930 and 1932.
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