The Common Law in India - College of Social Sciences and ...

74 The Common Law in Indiasuch act or abstinence or promise is called a considerationfor the promise."The language of the definition would suggest, aspointed out by Whitley Stokes 2S that in India considerationneed have no value. The fundamental ruleof the English common law is that consideration issomething which not only the parties but the courtcan regard as having some value. " The principlemay be broadly expressed thus: The law will notenforce a promise given for nothing, and if it isapparent to the court on the face of the transactionthat an alleged consideration amounts to nothing (notmerely to very little), then there is no foundationfor the promise, and we say either that there is notany consideration or that there is an ' unreal consideration.'The Act does say in section 10 thatagreements are contracts, i.e., enforceable, if they are(amongst other conditions) made for a lawful consideration.In section 23 it is declared that certainkinds of consideration are not lawful. In section 25agreements made without consideration are declared(special exceptions excepted) to be void. It is notanywhere stated in terms that consideration is notlawful, or otherwise not sufficient, if it is not ' good'or ' valuable' in the sense which those terms bearin English law." 2i Notwithstanding the absence,however, of a specific provision that the considerationmust be a valuable consideration it does not appearthat the Act intended to abrogate the fundamentalcommon law rule.23 Anglo-Indian Codes, Vol. I, p. 497.2* Pollock and Mulla, op. dt., pp. 32-33.