Question

It is a cardinal principle of the law of contract that acceptance of an offer must be absolute and it can give no room for doubt. The offer and acceptance must be founded on three components, viz., ‘certainty’, ‘commitment’ and ‘communication’. However, when the acceptor puts any new condition while accepting the proposal already signed by the proposer, the contract is not complete until the proposer accepts that condition, as held by the Court in Haridwar Singh v. Bagun Sumbrui,[(1973) 3 SCC 889]. An acceptance with a variation is no acceptance. It is, in effect and substance, simply a counter-proposal which must be accepted fully by the original proposer, before a contract is made.