GUWAHATI: The Supreme Court of India passed a judgement yesterday on February 27, stating that any sale agreement or contract with a minor is void and not enforceable under law, as per reports.
The Supreme Court was hearing a case in which a minor had signed a sale deed to purchase some immovable property and the sellers were given an advance, but they later applied for Order 12 Rule 6 of the Code of Civil Procedure (Judgment on admission) stating that sale agreement would be void since the appellant was a minor at the time of the agreement and therefore, no claim for specific performance can lie based on such void sale agreement.
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The SC Bench comprising of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Prashant Kumar Mishra upheld the earlier order by the High Court and stated, “There is no dispute on the contention raised by the defendants in the suit that the appellant was a minor at the time of the said agreement dated 03.09.2007. Therefore, such contract with a minor, was rightly found to be a void contract by the High Court."
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“As per the Contract Act, 1872 it is clearly stated that for an agreement to become a contract, the parties must be competent to contract, wherein age of majority is a condition for competency. A deed of mortgage is a contract and we cannot hold that a mortgage in the name of a minor is valid, simply because it is in the interest of the minor unless she is represented by her natural guardian or guardian appointed by the court," the Supreme Court said, referring to an earlier 2015 case of Mathai Mathai vs. Joseph Mary Alias Marykutty Joseph.