Minor’s position in contract and criminal law

[leaglesamiksha]

Age is an important criteria under both – The Indian Contract Act, 1872, and the Indian Penal Code, 1860. Minors are not allowed to enter into contracts, generally. Further, in most cases, minors are either absolved of or subject to lesser degree of criminal culpability.
Ques: How does the laibility of minors differ from contract law to criminal law?

Topic

[Intern]

Liability in contract law:

As per the section 2(h) of Indian Contract Act, 1872 the term “Contract” means an agreement
which is enforceable by law. The contract must satisfy all the essential elements mentioned in the
Act to become a valid Contract.
One of the essential elements of a valid Contract is competent parties.
The term Competent parties mean a person who is major not a minor. Minor is an individual who has not attained the age of 18 years and the attaining majority is one of the essential condition
precedents for every contract. As per the Indian law, a minor’s agreement stands void, and it has
no stand in the eyes of the law. So a contract with minor stands null and void and either party can
not impose it. And even after the minor person attains majority, the same agreement cannot be ratified by him. The difference here is that a minor’s contract is null or void; So a contract
however, it is not illegal as there is no statutory provision regarding this. And the minors cannot
be held liable under contract law.

Liability in criminal law:
Section 82 and section 83 of the Indian Penal Code confer a special immunity from criminal
liability to children up to 12 years of age. Children below 7 years of age get a complete defense
from criminal liability whereas, for children from 7 to 12 years, the immunity conferred will depend on their maturity level of understanding during the commission of the crime.
Section 82: According to this section, Nothing is an offence which is done by a child under seven
years of age.
Section 83: According to this section, Nothing is an offence which is done by a child above
seven years of age and under twelve, who has not attained sufficient level of maturity in
understanding the nature and consequences of his conduct on that occasion of crime.

[Intern]

Minors have their own stake when it comes to either contracting with a party or having criminal liabilities. Minor is basically an individual who still hasn’t attained legal age prescribed under the law in order to become eligible to have social, political and economic relations with the world. Under section 3 of Indian Majority Act 1875, a person who has not attained the age of 18 years is considered as a minor. A person with such a age number is prosecuted in a quite different way.
Indian Contract Act, 1872 has some provisions stating the legal status of an individual who hasn’t attained the legal age. The act clearly specifies that a minor is incompetent to enter into a contractual agreement with any party. The agreement signed by a minor is considered as invalid in the eyes of law irrespective of how it holds under the law. The Act specifies the fact that any contract which is void in itself is free from any outcomes arising out of it.
A minor cannot be held accountable even if he contracts by committing a tortious activity in order to enter into an agreement. Since he is not able to establish a valid contract, the act doesn’t allow the individual to revert back the former condition of the agreement in any future date when he attains the legal age. The minor after attaining the age of majority can enter into a fresh contract but cannot rectify the earlier one. In case minor possesses goods gained unlawfully after entering into the contract, he can be asked to return the goods he has which ultimately won’t be taken as a consideration of contract.
Under Criminal law, the Juvenile Justice Act 2000 states that in order to commit an offence an individual is required to attain the legal age of 18 years. The criminal law recognizes the mental state of a child in order to commit an offence.
It is essential for any individual to understand the consequences and the nature of the act done by him and thus the maturity to attain the level of understanding comes from a certain age.
Section 82 and 83 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 states the provisions granting complete immunity to the infant above the age of 7 and under 12 being charged for a criminal offence with no understanding of consequential penal liabilities as stated in the leading case of Hiralal Mallick vs State of Bihar. These provisions are enshrined under the Act is to protect children who are stricken with the infancy having no proper state of mind in committing a particular act and the consequences thereafter.

[Author]

Replies