:A contract of
insurance is a legal agreement
between two or more parties and has to comply with the provisions of the
Indian Contract Act 1872. Insurance
contract also is governed by the general
law of contract as embodied in the Indian Contract Act. An insurance contract id defined as an
agreement between the insurer and
insured in consideration of having received the premium from the insured to undertake to make good
the financial loss of the insured, subject to limit of a specified amount,
suffered by the financial loss of the insured,
as a result of a loss or damage of the insured property by specified
perils insured against during the stated period. All insurance contracts must have the following five essential elements
in order that may be enforceable by law:
(1) OFFER AND ACCEPTANCE: The person who wants to take up
covers again particular perils offers his risk through a proposal from to
the insurance company. When the premium
is received by the company and cover note or policy is issued by the company,
it signifies the acceptances the proposal .
(2) CONSIDERATION: The premium paid is the consideration and on receipt
of the premium by the insurance
company, the contract comes in force. The consideration need not be money only but it must be valuable . It may be sums, rights, interest, profit or benefit (4)
COMPETENCY: A proposer should have
capacity to enter into a contract. If
the proposer is of sound mind and has
attained age of majority, he is said to
be competent to enter into a insurance
contract. Also he must not be debarred by any law to which he is subject to enter into agreements . Any insurance policy taken by a legal guardian
on a minor life will constitute a valid
contract.
(5) LAWFUL OBJECT: The
object for which an agreements entered should be lawful. Such object should not be
illegal, or against the interest of the
public. In proposal from the object of insurance asked which should be legal and the
object should not be concealed. If the
object of an insurance. like the consideration is found to be unlawful the policy is void. Moreover, the object of the contract should not be of gambling
nature.