Free consent for CLAT - Practice Questions & MCQ

Passage: 7

Read the passage carefully and answer the following question.

An assault is an attempt or a threat to do corporal hurt to another, coupled with an apparent present ability and intention to do the act. Actual contact isn’t necessary for an assault, though it’s during a battery. But it’s not every threat when there’s no actual personal violence that constitutes an assault; there must, in altogether cases, be the means of carrying the threat into effect.

“Any gesture calculated to excite within the party threatened an inexpensive apprehension that the party threatening intends immediately to supply violence, or, within the language of the Indian Penal Code is ‘about to use criminal force’ to the person threatened, constitute, if including a gifted ability to hold such intention in execution, an assault in law.

The intention as well as the act makes an assault. Therefore, if one strikes another upon the hand, arm, or breast in discourse, it is no assault, there being no intention to assault; but if one, intending to assault, strikes at another and misses him, this is often an assault; so if he holds up his hand against another during a threatening manner, and says nothing, it is an assault.

A Battery is the intentional and direct application of any physical force to the person of another. It is the actual striking of another person, or touching him in a rude, angry, revengeful, or insolent manner. A battery includes an assault which is briefly stated as an overt act evidencing an instantaneous intention to commit A battery. It is mainly distinguishable from an assault within the incontrovertible fact that physical contact is important to accomplish it. It cannot mean merely an injury inflicted by an instrument held within the hand, but it includes all cases where a celebration is struck by any missile thrown by another.

False imprisonment may be a total restraint of the freedom of an individual, for, however, a short time, without a lawful excuse. The word “false” means wrong or erroneous. It is a tort of strict liability and therefore the plaintiff has to not prove fault on the part of the defendant. To constitute these wrongs two things are necessary:

(1) The total restraint of the liberty of the person: The detention of the person may be either actual or physical and constructive, i.e., by mere show of authority.

 (2) The detention must be unlawful. The period that the detention continues is immaterial. But it must not be lawful. If one compels another to stay in a given place against his will, he imprisons that other just as much as if he locked him up in a room; compelling a person to travel during a given direction against his will may amount to imprisonment.

Question :

K is planning a party for New Year’s Eve. L the brother of K, envies his brother and locks him in his room from the inside. When both the brothers were inside and L throws the key outside the room by the window. Both the brothers got locked inside. K failed to attend the party. Decide.

Passage 3

Read the passage and answer the questions that follow.

When two parties enter into a contract they should give their consent. The consent of the parties means that they understand the same thing in the same sense. There must be no misunderstanding between the parties about the subject matter of the contract. Section 13 of the Indian Contract Act defines the term 'Consent' as Two or more persons are said to consent when they agree upon the same thing in the same sense.

Thus, consent involves the identity of minds in respect of the subject matter of the contract. In English Law, this is called 'consensus-ad-idem'. If the parties are not ad-idem on the subject matter of the contract, then there is no real agreement between them. When two persons enter into a contract concerning a particular person or a thing and it turns out that each of them had a different person or thing in mind, no contract would exist between them. In Foster v. Mackinnon, the defendant has purported to endorse a bill of exchange which he was told was a guarantee. The court held that he was not liable as his mind did not go with that writing and he never intended to sign a bill of exchange. There was no consent and consequently no agreement arose.

For a contract to be valid, it is not enough that the parties have given their consent. The consent should also be free i.e., it has been given by the free will of the parties involving no pressure or use of force. Section 14 of the Act states that Consent is said to be free when it is not caused by (i) coercion, or (ii) undue influence, or (iii) fraud, or (iv) misrepresentation, or (v) mistake. Thus, the consent of the parties to a contract is regarded as free if it has not been induced by any of the five factors stated under Section 14. In other words, consent is not free if it can be proved that it has been caused by coercion, undue influence, fraud, misrepresentation, or mistake.

When the consent of any party is not free, the contract is usually treated as voidable at the option of the party whose consent was not free. If, however, the consent has been caused by mistake on the part of both parties, the contract is considered void.

Question:

Kunal and Sunil enter into a Contract for the supply of almonds. However, Sunil wants to get old almonds for feeding his cattle but Kunal sent him new and fresh almonds which were of better quality. Decide.