REVOCATION OF OFFER AND ACCEPTANCE

REVOCATION OF OFFER AND ACCEPTANCE

If there are specific requirements governing the making of an ouer and the acceptance of that offer, we also have specific law governing their revocation.

In term of Section 4, communication of revocation (of the proposal or its acceptance) is complete.
(i) as against the person who makes it when it is put into a course of transmission to the person to whom it is made so as to be out of the power of the person who makes it, and

(ii) as against the person to whom it is made, when it comes to his knowledge.

The above law can be illustrated as follows: If you revoke your proposal made to me by a telegram, the revocation will be complete, as far as you are concerned when you have dispatched the telegram. But as far as I am concerned, it will be complete only when I receive the telegram.

As regards revocation of acceptance, if you go by the above example, I can revoke my acceptance (of your ouer) by a telegram. This revocation of acceptance by me will be complete when I dispatch the telegram and against you, it will be complete when it reaches you.

But the important question for consideration is when a proposal can be revoked? And when can an acceptance be revoked? These questions are more important than the question when the revocation (of proposal and acceptance) is complete.

Ordinarily, the oueror can revoke his ouer before it is accepted. If he does so, the oueree cannot create a contract by accepting the revoked ouer.

For example the bidder at an auction sale may withdraw (revoke) his bid (offer) before it is accepted by the auctioneer by fall of hammer.

An offer may be revoked by the offeror before its acceptance, even though he had originally agreed to hold it open for a definite period of time. So long as it is a mere offer, it can be withdrawn whenever the offeror desires.

Example: X ouered to sell 50 bales of cotton at a certain price and promised to keep it open for acceptance by Y till 6 pm of that day. Before that time X sold them to Z. Y accepted before 6 p.m., but after the revocation by X. In this case it was held that the offer was already revoked.

In terms of Section 5 of the Act a proposal can be revoked at any time before the communication of its acceptance is complete as against the proposer. An acceptance may be revoked at any time before the communication of acceptance is complete as against the acceptor.

Example: A proposes, by a letter sent by post, to sell his house to B. B accepts the proposal by a letter sent by post. A may revoke his proposal at any time before or at the moment when B posts his letter of acceptance, but not afterwards. Whereas B may revoke his acceptance at any time before or at the moment when the letter communicating it reaches A, but not afterwards.

An acceptance to an offer must be made before that offer lapses or is revoked.

The law relating to the revocation of ouer is the same in India as in England, but the law relating to the revocation of acceptance is diuerent.

In English law, the moment a person expresses his acceptance of an offer, that moment the contract is concluded, and such an acceptance becomes irrevocable, whether it is made orally or through the post. In Indian law, the position is diuerent as regards contract through post.