Dr.

Manish Yadav
Assistant Professor of Law
CONSIDERATION-
Consideration is an essential element of a valid contract

without which no single promise will be enforceable.

It is a term used in the sense of quid pro quo, i.e.,

‘something in return’.
Having a double aspect of a benefit to the promisor and a

detriment to the promisee, it has to be really understood in

the sense of some detriment as envisaged by English Law.
Section 2 (d) of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 defines
consideration as ‘when at the desire of the promisor, the
promisee or any other person has done or abstained from
doing, or does or abstains from doing or promises to do or
abstain from doing something, such an act or abstinence or
promise is called consideration for the promise’.
The section defines what is consideration for a promise. It is
an act, forbearance or promise done or given at the request of
the promisor by the promisee or any other person.
While this section defines consideration, the requirement of
consideration as an essential element of contract is
mentioned only in section 25 of the Act; which renders an
agreement without consideration void, subject to exceptions
(Section 127 and 185)therein.
From the above definition it can be inferred that,
Consideration is doing or not doing something, which the
promisor desires to be done or not done. 
(1)Consideration must be at the desire of the promisor.
(2)Consideration may move from one person to any other
person.
(3)Consideration may be past, present or future and
(4)Consideration should be real though not adequate In most
cases the promisor for doing an act or not doing an act
derives some benefit by way of consideration. 
Doctrine of Consideration
•The purpose of the doctrine of consideration is to put some

legal limits on enforceability of agreements and to establish

which promises should be legally enforceable.
•It limits the freedom of individuals to make binding legal

promises; only those promises which are supported by

consideration are enforceable, others are not binding, even if
the promisor intends to bind himself by the promise.
•Among the limitations on the enforcement of promises, the

requirement of consideration is described as the most

fundamental.
Lord Denning LJ has said in Combe v Combe (1951)2 KB
215 at 200
“The doctrine of consideration is too firmly fixed to be
thrown by a side wind. Its ill effects have been largely
mitigated of late, but it still remains a cardinal necessity of
the formation of a contract, although not its modification or
discharge.”
Definition
Consideration is defined in Misa v Currie (1875)LR 10 Ex
153 at 162:
“A valuable consideration in the sense of the law, may consist
either in some right, interest, profit, or benefit accruing to one
party, or some forbearance, detriment, loss or responsibility
given, suffered, or undertaken by the other.”
This definition requires that something of value must be given,
and that this can either be a benefit to the promisor or some
detriment to the promisee. The Supreme Court compared this
definition with s 2(d) of this Act, and approved as being
practically the same. It held that the word valuable was implied
in our law, and could be negative or positive.Chidambara
Iyer v P.S. Renga Iyer AIR 1966 SC 193
Another definition approved extensively is the one given by
Sir Frederick Pollock-
‘An act or forbearance of the one party, or the promise
thereof, is the price for which the promise of the other is
bought, and the promise thus given for value is enforceable.’
Detriment and Benefit-
Consideration for a promise may consist in either some
benefit conferred on the promisor, or detriment suffered by
the promisee, or both.

The benefit conferred on the promisor may be any right,

interest, profit or benefit given to him at his request.

The detriment suffered by the promisee may be any

forbearance, detriment, loss or responsibility suffered or
undertaken by the promisee (or under the Indian law, any
other person) at the request of the promisor.
Detriment and Benefit- conti….
A detriment to the promisee is good consideration even
though there is no benefit to the promisor.
The detriment may consist of any damage or any suspension
or forbearance of the plaintiff's right or any possibility of a
loss occasioned to him by the promise of the other.
The terms benefit and detriment have been used by courts in
two senses:
i. act which has some value; or
ii.such acts, the performance of which is not already legally
due from the promisee.
Executory and Executed Consideration
Contracts may be of two classes, one where consideration is
executed and the other where it is executory.
A consideration which insists in performance (or so far as it
consists in performance) is said to be executed. If and so far
as it consists in promise, it is said to be executory.
Consideration is executory when a promise is made by one
party in return for a promise made by the other; in such a case,
each promise is the consideration for the other. Each party may
have his action against the other for non-performance. Such
contract is bilateral, and is binding as soon as the promises are
exchanged. If the consideration is executory on both sides,
there will be outstanding rights and liabilities on both the sides.
if there is a contract for the sale of goods, delivery and
payment to be made at some future date, the consideration
consists in the promise to sell and to deliver on the one hand
and in the promise to pay on the other; the contract becomes
binding as soon as the promises are made, and does not
depend upon delivery or payment to be made. The fact that
the promise given for a promise may be dependent upon a
condition does not affect its validity as consideration.
Consideration is executed when an act is performed in return
for a promise, the promise is unilateral; and there will be a
right on one side and an outstanding liability on the other.
Illustrations of this may be found in offers of reward. Where,
for instance, the owner of a lost article offers a reward to the
person who finds and returns it to him, the finder, by
returning the article, both, accepts the offer and furnishes the
consideration for the offeror’s promise.
Essential Elements of Consideration-
Consideration must proceed at the desire of the Promisor
Consideration may move from the promisee or any other

person
Consideration may be a promise to do something or abstain

from doing something

Consideration may be past, present or future
There must be independent consideraton to support each

independent promise
Consideration must have some value in the eyes of Law

though it need not be adequate

Consideration must be real and not illusory, impossible

uncertain, ambigious, fraudulent, immoral or opposed to

public policy.
Essential Elements of Consideration- conti…..
1. At the desire of promisor-
The act constituting the consideration must have been done at
the desire or request of the promisor. This indicates the
return element of consideration.
The consideration may be of benefit to the promisor or to a
third party or may be of no apparent benefit to anybody but
merely a detriment to the promisee.
Consideration may be provided either in the form of
detriment suffered by the promisee or benefit provided to the
promisor. Detriment to the promisee suffices even if the
promisor does not benefit.
Essential Elements of Consideration- conti…..
Consideration which moves from the promisee, or any other
person, need not move to the promisor.
There is nothing to show in the definition of consideration in
s 2(d) of the Contract Act, that the benefit of any act or
abstinence as contained in that section must directly go to the
promisor.
The promisee may provide consideration by conferring a
benefit on a third party at the promisor's request. A contract
could arise even though the promise for doing or abstaining
from doing something was for the benefit of a third party
Essential Elements of Consideration- conti…..
The definition of consideration in Section 2(d) clearly
emphasizes that an act shall not be good consideration for a
promise unless it is done at the desire of the promisor.
“In Durga Prasad v. Baldeo 1880 3 All 221 the plaintiff, on
the order of the collector of a town, built at his own expense,
certain shops in a bazaar. The shops came to be occupied by
the defendants who, in consideration of the plaintiff having
expended money in the construction, promised to pay him
commission on articles sold through their agency in the
bazaar. The plaintiff’s action to recover the commission was
rejected." 
Essential Elements of Consideration- conti…..
The only ground for making of the promise is the expense

incurred by the plaintiff in establishing the Ganj(market) but

it is clear than anything done in that way was not ‘at the
desire’ of the defendants so as to constitute consideration .
The act was the result of not the promise but of the
collector’s order.
 Thank you
Dr. Manish Yadav
Email- manishyadavlaw@nlunagpur.ac.in
Wiki page- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manish_Yadav
Website- www.drmanishyadav.com