All of us who are having business dealings as a part of our profession often don’t go for contract in writing as we trust the opposite party and mostly we believe in the oral contracts as we have the fear of losing future business.

Trust and mutual understanding is important in business as long as business transactions are smooth and nothing wrong happens but once a party feels the transaction didn’t take place as par the oral commitment and other party cheated , we start realizing the importance of jotting down the terms and conditions of the agreement on paper.

Therefore, to avoid complications and sour business relationship in future it is essential to have the terms and conditions in a written document .

Here I am trying to put light on the importance of having written contract instead of oral one in commercial transactions

Below are some of the essential elements required to be fulfilled under the Indian Contract Act 1872 for treating an agreement as a contract.

1. There should be an offer made by one party.

2. The offer must be accepted by the other party;

3. All the parties to the contract must be competent

4. Consideration and Object must be lawful,

5. The agreement should not be expressly declared void by a law.

Each of the above requirements have been explained in detail under the Indian Contract Act, 1872.

We can see from the elements mentioned above that it’s not essential to have the terms and conditions of the contract in writing, terms and conditions expressed orally are recongnised equally by law. Though in

the Indian context , oral business transactions are quite common and often don’t relay on written agreements due to obvious reasons,

There are some disadvantages of having business transactions based on Oral terms the most important ones being:

· The terms of the oral contract are governed by the conduct of the parties to the agreement. Sometimes, the parties to a contract don’t perform their obligation or their performance differ from the promises they agreed upon and, therefore, the interpretation of the contract may completely be different from what the parties had originally intended.

In the absence of a written contract, it is difficult to establish whether the contract has been breached, whether the party has performed his obligation as par the agreement terms. Therefore the absence of written contract leave a room for the third party to interpret incorrectly.

Therefore it is for the best interest of both the parties whether it’s an individual or a business firm, to have the contract in written form to avoid disputes in future.

One more strong argument which can be given in favour of having the contract in writing and signed by both the parties that all the terms and conditions agreed upon shall take place in writing and it would be easier for the third party to interpret and come to the possible conclusion.