Scribd
Upload
1K views2 pages

Mistake of Law

Mistake is not defined in the Indian Contract Act but is dealt with in Sections 20, 21, and 22. There are two types of mistakes: mistakes of law and mistakes of fact. A mistake of law occurs when a contract is performed without knowing or ignoring the law essential to that contract. A mistake of law cannot usually be used as a defense, as per the maxim "ignorance of the law is no excuse." However, a mistake of foreign law is treated as a mistake of fact and can make a contract void if both parties were mistaken about the foreign law.

Uploaded by

Ruchita Kaundal
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
1K views2 pages

Mistake of Law

Mistake is not defined in the Indian Contract Act but is dealt with in Sections 20, 21, and 22. There are two types of mistakes: mistakes of law and mistakes of fact. A mistake of law occurs when a contract is performed without knowing or ignoring the law essential to that contract. A mistake of law cannot usually be used as a defense, as per the maxim "ignorance of the law is no excuse." However, a mistake of foreign law is treated as a mistake of fact and can make a contract void if both parties were mistaken about the foreign law.

Uploaded by

Ruchita Kaundal
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
  • Types of Mistake
  • Definition of Mistake

Definition of Mistake

‘Mistake’ is not defined in the Indian Contract Act. Section


20, 21 and 22 deals with the concept related to mistake. ‘Mistake’ can be
defined as any action, decision or judgement that produced an unwanted and
unintentional result. A Mistake is said to have occurred where parties
intending to do one thing by error do something else. Phillips v. Brooks Ltd is
an English contract law case concerning mistake. It was held in this case that
a person is deemed to contract with the person in front of them unless they
can substantially prove that they instead of them intended to deal with
another person.

Types of Mistake

A mistake is of two types:

 Mistake of Law,
 Mistake of Fact.

Mistake of Law
Mistake of Law means any contract which is performed by parties without
knowing the law (or by ignoring the law), which is essential for that
contract. Section 21 of the Indian Contract Act deals with ‘effect of mistake
as to law’.

Grant v. Borg

In this case, the person was not knowing the clauses of the Immigration Act
1971, for staying beyond the time limit by the leave. Here, he cannot apply
for defence under the mistake of law.

Mistake of Law can be of two types:


 Mistake of Indian Law: “Ignorantia Juris non excusat” is a Latin
maxim which means “Ignorance of the law is not excused”. If a
person takes part in a contract without knowing any specific
provisions of Indian Law (which is essential for that contract), then
Contract is not voidable because everyone is supposed to know the
law of his country. For example: According to the provisions of
Indian law, we have to recover the amount of loan within 3 months
from the due date, after that time-barred debt is imposed. Now if
we do not show any interest in the recovery of loan amount during
these 3 months because of not knowing the law (mistake of law),
then we can not take it up as an excuse or defence.

A and B make a contract grounded on the erroneous belief that a specific


debt is barred by the Indian Law of Limitation, then the contract is not
voidable.

A murdered B, A cannot apply for the defence of mistake of law that is; he
was not aware of law related to the murder.

 Mistake of Foreign Law:- If a person takes part in a Contract without


knowing any specific provisions of Foreign Law (which is essential
for that contract), then that mistake is treated as a mistake of fact
i.e, the contract is void if both the parties under a mistake as to a
foreign law because one can not be expected to know the law of
other foreign countries.

You might also like