Minor seeking relief, compellable to restore
If a minor, however seeks to cancel the contract, the contract can be cancelled only under the condition that the minor shall restore all the benefits obtained by him. Therefore, as per the new act if a minor has received any benefit under an agreement and him being a defendant in the case resists any suit as being void as per section 11 of the Indian Contract Act, he may be asked to restore any benefits which he has received under the agreement but only to the extent to which his estate has benefited. The position of minor with respect to him being a plaintiff seeking to avoid agreement remains the same.
The courts will however, not compel the restitution by a minor even if he is a plaintiff if the other party was aware of his infancy in a manner that the other party was not deceived, if the other party was unscrupulous in dealing with the minor or where the other party was so zealous to enter into a contract with the minor that the false representation exerted no influence on him.
The court in Mohiri Bibee clearly established that a contract with a minor is completely void. But it has been generally followed that such cases are limited to situations when minor is charged with obligations and other party seeks to enforce these obligations. Therefore, a minor is allowed to enforce a contract with is of some benefit to him and has not contractual obligations. There is nothing in the ICA which prevents a minor from being a beneficiary or a promisee. He or she can accept benefits out of a contract. All such contracts are enforceable only when minor has already given the full consideration and only thing that is left is for him to receive the benefit. Further, if the contract is still executory and the minor has still some obligations to perform, the contract would be held to be void ab initio.
Section 68 of the Indian Contract Act states that if a person legally incompetent to contract is supplied with necessaries by another person, the person who supplies such necessaries is entitled to be reimburse from the estate of the minor. Necessary is relative factor and it has to be determined with respect to the circumstances and social status of a minor. Luxuries and ornamental articles are generally not included as necessaries. Only in exceptional cases purely ornamental things might be included as necessary. The burden of proof is on the supplier to show that the ornamental things supplied to the minor was necessary.
