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The Indian Contract Act was first brought into existence way back in 1872 by the British and was based on the principles of the English Common Law. It was enacted by the Imperial Legislative Council on 25th April, 1872 and the law came into force on 1st September, 1872. This law is applicable to the whole of India, except the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The original Act had 266 Sections with a wide scope of operations as stated below-

1. 1. Sections 01 to 75 dealt with General Principles of Law of Contract
   2. Sections 76 to 123 dealt with Contracts relating to Sale of Goods
   3. Sections 124 to 23 dealt with Special Contracts- Indemnity, Guarantee, Bailment and Pledge
   4. Sections 239 to 266 dealt with Contracts relating to Partnership

Furthermore, sections 76 to 123 were re-enacted as the Sale of Goods and Movement Act in 1930 and sections 239 to 266 were re-enacted as the Indian Partnership Act in 1932.

Classification Of Contracts

Broadly, the contracts in India can be classified into four different kinds, which can further be listed as different types of contracts.

1. Based On Creation

• Express Contract: An express contract deals with a contract which is either made by spoken words or a written document. Example- A customer buying a flat from a broker with a written document.

• Implied Contract: An implied contract deals with a contract which is made in any way other than a verbal agreement or a written record. In this particular case, it is inferred from the conduct of a person or from that of any given circumstance. Example- A bus shuttle service from the state government plies in a city, to use its service you have to buy a ticket and the shuttle service isn’t exclusively operating for you.

• Tacit Contract: A tacit contract deals with a contract which implies that it is made in silence because there is an understanding that there is no contradiction or objection from the circumstances.
  Example: Withdrawing cash from an ATM machine

2. Based On Execution

• Executed Contract: This is a contract signed between two parties who have performed their legal obligations under the contract.
  Example- A person selling his car to another person saying the car is for sale for a sum of 5 lakh rupees and the same being obligated.

• Executory Contract: This is a contract signed between two parties who are yet to perform their legal obligations under the contract.
  Example- A person offers his bike for 1 lakh rupees and another person accepts the offer, but the bike is yet to be delivered and the amount for it is also yet to be paid.

• Partly Executed Contract: This is a contract signed between two parties where one of the mentioned parties is yet to perform a legal commitment whereas the other party has satisfactorily completed the legal obligation as per the contract.
  Example- A salesperson sells a flat to a customer but handing over of the keys to the new flat takes a month’s time.

3. Based On Enforceability

• Valid Contract: A contract which duly follows the laws prescribed by any Court of law is said to be a Valid contract.
  Example- A man offers to marry a woman, the woman agrees to this offer.

• Void Contract: At the time of contracting, the contract was valid but in due course of time, the contract becomes void due to several reasons like a change of law or a subsequent amendment to it, performance degradation and other unforeseeable circumstances.
  Example- A man marries a woman with her consent but later on the woman dies due to illness. So initially the contract was valid and the same becomes void due to the death of the spouse.

• Void Agreement: If an agreement isn’t enforceable by law, then such type of an agreement is said to be void.
  Example- An agreement made with a minor or a person of unsound mind or a drunkard is considered to be void.

• Voidable Contract: An agreement which is enforceable by one or more of the legally bound parties but not at the option of the other party. If the contract isn’t forsworn by the disgruntled party or set aside, the contract cannot be a valid one.
  Example- A land shark threatens to kill a person if he doesn’t sell his property for 1 lakh rupees. The payment is received because of forced coercion. The person has to make this voidable contract because his consent to the sell the property in contention was never given and this must be done quickly before the hooligans or the land shark sells it to another party who isn’t aware of its pre-existing conditions. If that’s done, then it becomes a non-repudiated contract.

• Illegal Agreement: Illegal agreements are void from the very beginning because the agreement made cannot be enforced by any law.
  Example- Contract killing or supari killing is void from the very beginning.

• Unenforceable Contract: This is a valid contract but still it can’t be enforceable because of a technical lag.
  Example- All arbitration agreements must be made in writing, any oral agreement can’t be taken into account and made enforceable.

4. Based On Duration

• Full-time And Part-time Contracts: A full-time contract usually involves 40 hours of work per week and it may go up to a maximum of 60 hours per week. A part-time contract generally hovers around the 30-hour mark per week.
  Example- Salaried professionals like engineers are full-time employees and delivery boys can be employed on a part-time basis.

• Fixed-term Contracts: A fixed-term contract is set for a stipulated period within which the set task must be accomplished.
  Example- Construction workers were given a task to finish a building project within 6 months.

• Agency Staff Contracts: This contract deals with hiring employees on a temporary basis from agencies which provide services for larger corporations.
  Example- Agencies providing skilled labour for corporations like IBM, Yahoo, Infosys etc.

• Zero Hour Contracts: This type of contract deals with workers who can be contacted for professional service but they are already working for some other employer. It’s not necessary that they should right away work on the assigned work, unlike full-time employees.
  Example- Freelancers providing content.

Conclusion

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