Mr. Y is a devotee and wants to donate an elephant to the temple as a core part of ritual worship. He contacted Mr. X who wanted to sell his elephant. Mr. X contracted with Mr. Y to sell his elephant for ` 20 Lakhs. Both were unaware that the elephant was dead a day before the agreement. Referring to the provisions of the Indian Contract Act, 1872, explain whether it is a void, voidable or a valid contract.

As per Section 2(j) of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 a contract which ceases to be enforceable by law becomes void when it ceases to be enforceable. The fact of impossibility may be known or unknown to the promisor or promisee. It may be added by clarification here that the term “contract” shall be understood as an “agreement”. Thus, when the parties agree on doing something which is obviously impossible in itself the agreement would be void. In this case, Mr. X and Mr. Y were ignorant of the fact that the elephant was dead and therefore the performance of the contract was impossible from the very start (impossibility ab initio). Hence, this contract is void being not enforceable by law.