Define Proposal.

Question: Define Proposal. [MPJS 1996]

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Answer

A proposal and its acceptance is the universally acknowledged process for the making of an agreement. The proposal is the starting point. Section 2(a) defines “proposal” as follows: “When one person signifies to another his willingness to do or to abstain from doing anything, with a view to obtaining the assent of that other to such act or abstinence, he is said to make a proposal.

The person who makes the proposal is called the promisor or “offeror”, the person to whom it is made is called the proposee or “offeree” and when he accepts it, he is called a “promisee”. In the terminology of Section 2(c) “the person making the proposal is called the “promisor”, and the person accepting the proposal is called the “promisee”. In view of the above definition, a proposal is in the first place an expression of the offeror’s willingness to do or to abstain from doing something. Secondly, it should be made with a view to obtaining the assent of the offeree to the proposed act or abstinence.

The first part of the definition of “proposal” lays emphasis upon the requirement that the willingness to make a proposal should be “signified”. To signify means to indicate or declare. In the traditional language of the law of contract, it means that the proposal should be communicated to the other party. The process of making a proposal is completed by the act of communicating it to the other party. Thus, a proposal may be communicated in any way which has the effect of laying before the offeree the willingness to do or abstain. It may, for example, be done by words of mouth, or by writing, or even by conduct.

The best example is from the case of Basildon Dc v. J.E. Lesser Ltd.,(1985) 1 All ER 20 in which a builder who was being allotted the task of making a building. As per the entire terms of the contract that were expressly written in the agreement, nowhere was the clause of the fitness of habitation mentioned. But, relying on the circumstances of the case that pointed towards the expertise of the contractors to produce habitable dwellings the court held the contractor to be so liable. It is but natural also, in the given facts, that if a consumer asks for the construction of a building, it should be habitable.

Thus, to conclude a proposal is an expression by one person or group of persons, or by agents on his behalf, made to another, of his willingness to be bound to a contract with that other on terms either certain or capable of being rendered certain. A proposal may be made to an individual or to a group of persons, or to the world at large. It may be made expressly in words, or may be implied from the conduct of the proposer.

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Law of Contract Mains Questions Series: Important Questions for Judiciary, APO & University Exams

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8. Law of Contract Mains Questions Series Part-VIII
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