Unlawful Object and Consideration

A clerk offers to get you a municipal job if you pay him ₹50,000. A property dealer agrees to share the profit if you help him cheat a widow out of her plot. A contractor promises to supervise a legal factory and, on the side, an illegal trade. You have a signed paper in each case, and money changes hands. Will a court enforce any of them? Section 23 of the Contract Act answers with five tests, and failing any one of them makes the agreement void.

In two minutes

Under s.23 the consideration or object of an agreement is unlawful if it is forbidden by law, would defeat a law, is fraudulent, involves injury to another's person or property, or is immoral or opposed to public policy; every such agreement is void, and s.24 voids it entirely if any part of a single object or consideration is unlawful.

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