DISCHARGE OF CONTRACT

Various modes of Discharging of a Contract

Discharge of a contract means termination of the contractual relations between the parties to a contract. A contract is said to be discharged when the rights and obligations of the parties under the contract come to an end. Modes of discharge of contract

Discharge by Performance
A contract can be discharged by performance in any of the following ways:

(a) By Actual Performance A contract is said to be discharged by actual per-formance when the parties to the contract perform their promises in accordance with the terms of the contract.

(b) By Attempted Performance or Tender A contract is said to be discharged by attempted performance when the promisor has made an offer of performance to the promisee but it has not been accepted by the promisee.

Discharge by Mutual Agreement
Since a contract is created by mutual agreement, it can also be discharged by mutual agreement. A contract can be discharged by mutual agreement in any of the following ways:

a) Novation [Section 62] Novation means the substitution of a new contract for the original contract. Such a new contract may be either between the same parties or between different parties. The consideration for the new contract is the discharge of the original contract.

(b) Rescission [Section 62] Rescission means cancellation of the contract by any party or all the parties to a contract.

(c) Alteration [Section 62] Alteration means a change in the terms of a contract with mutual consent of the parties. Alteration discharges the original contract and creates a new contract. However, parties to the new contract must not change.

(d) Remission [Section 63] Remission means acceptance by the promisee of a’ lesser fulfillment of the promise made. According to Section 63, “Every promisee may dispense with or remit, wholly or in part, the performance of the promise made to him, or may extend the time for such performance, or may accept instead of it any satisfaction which he thinks fit.”

(e) Waiver Waiver means intentional relinquishment of a right under the con-tract. Thus, it amounts to releasing a person of certain legal obligation under a contract.

Discharge by Operation of Law
A contract may be discharged by operation of law in the following cases:

(a) By Death of the Promisor A contract involving the personal skill or ability of the promisor is discharged on the death of the promisor.

(b) By Insolvency When a person is declared insolvent, he is discharged from his liability up to the date of his insolvency.

(c) By Unauthorised Material Alteration If any party makes any material alteration in the terms of the contract without the approval of the other party, the contract comes to an end.

(d) By the Identity of Promisor and Promisee When the promisor becomes the promisee, the other parties are discharged.

Discharge by Impossibility of Performance
The effects of impossibility of the performance of a contract may be discussed under the following two heads:

(a) Effects of Initial Impossibility

(b) Effects of Supervening Impossibility

(c) Declaration of War The pending contracts at the time of declaration of war are either suspended or declared as void.

(d) Change of Law The contract is discharged if the performance of the contract becomes impossible or unlawful due to change in law after the formation of the contract.

Discharge by Lapse of Time
A contract is discharged if it is not performed or enforced within a specified period, called period of limitation. The Limitation Act, 1963 has prescribed the different periods for different contracts, e.g. period of limitation for exercising right to recover a debt is 3 years, and to recover an immovable property is 12 years. The contractual parties cannot exercise their rights after the expiry of period of limitation.

Discharge by Breach of Contract
A contract is said to be discharged by breach of contract if any party to the contract refuses or fails to perform his part of the contract or by his act makes it impossible to perform his obligation under the contract. A breach of contract may occur in the following two ways:

(a) Anticipatory Breach of Contract Anticipatory breach of contract occurs when party declares his intention of not performing the contract before the performance is due.

(b) Actual Breach of Contract Actual breach of contract occurs in the follow-ing two ways:

(i) On Due Date of Performance: If any party to a contract refuses or fails to perform his part of the contract at the time fixed for performance, it is called an actual breach of contract on due date of performance.

DISCHARGE OF CONTRACT

Q. Describe the various modes in which a contract may be discharged. (2002)
1. Introduction:

A contract is said to be discharged when the rights and obligation created by it come to end. The contract act 1872 provides various ways in which a contract may be discharge or terminated.

2. Modes of discharge of contract:
Following are different modes in which a contract may be discharged.
(I) Performance:
Performance is a common mode of discharge of a contract. It is a common of discharge when the parties to a contract perform their share of promises the contract is discharged.
(a) Types of performance:
Performance may be of two types.
(i) Actual performance:
When each party to a contract fulfill the obligations arising under the contract according to the terms and conditions of the contract, it is called actual performance.
(ii) Offer of performance:
An offer to perform is known as Tender’ or ‘Offer of performance when the promisor offers to perform the obligation but the other party refuses to accept, the offer is equivalent to performance.
Essentials of a valid offer of performance.
(i) It must be unconditional .
(ii) It must be made at proper time.
(iii) It must be made at proper place.
(iv) It must be made by a person who is able to perform the promise.
(v) It must be made to the promise or his agent.
(vi) An offer, of performance made to stranger is invalid.
(vii) In case of tender of money exact amount should be tendered.
(II) By agreement:
A contract can also be discharged by the fresh agreement between the parties.
(a) Ways to terminate the contract:
Following are different ways to discharge a contract by agreement.
(i) Novation:
When the parties to the contract agree to substitute a new contract for a contract, that is called Novation.
Kinds of Novation:
(a) A Novation involving the change of parties.
(b) A Novation involving substitution of a new contract in the place of old contract.
(ii) Rescission:
When all or some of the terms of contract are cancelled the contract is said to be rescined.
Modes of rescission:
Rescission may occur.
(i) By mutual consent of the parties.
(ii) When are party fails to reform his contractual obligation, the other party may rescind the contract.
(iii) Alteration:
When one or more of the contract is altered by actual consent of the parties, the contract is said to be altered.
(iv) Release of waiver:
Waiver means the intentional abandonment of a right, which a person is entitled to under a contract.
(v) Remission:
Remission of performance means that a promise can discharge the promisor also without a new agreement but not only without consideration. Creditors may accept lesser amount than what is due in discharge of the whole debt.
(vi) Merger:
It takes place when an inferior right accuring under a contract merger into a superior right accuring to the same party or some other contract.
(III) By impossibility:
Impossibility discharge the parties. If the act becomes impossible after the formation of contract, the contract is rendered void.
(a) Categories of impossibility:
Following are categories of impossibility.
(i) Initial impossibility:
Initial impossibility is that which is known or unknown to the parties.
(ii) Subsequent impossibility:
Some times a contract, is capable of being performed when entered into. But some subsequent event renders the performance impossible.
(b) Factors causing impossibility of performance of contract:
The following are the factors causing impossible of the performance of the contract.

• (i) Destruction of subject matter.
• (ii) Failure of ultimate purpose
• (iii) Death
• (iv) Personal incapacity
• (v) Change of law
• (vi) Declaration of war
• (IV) Discharge by laps of time:

A contract may be discharge by laps of time. The contract should be performed with in a reasonable time. If a contract is not discharge with in a specified time, the contract is discharued.
(V) By operation of law:
A contract may be discharged by operation of law.
Ways of termination:
Following are different ways of discharge under operation of law.
(a) Insolvency:
Where the court declares a person as insolvent, the rights and liabilities are transferred to officer known as receiver so contract is discharged.
(b) By unauthorized:
If the terms of the contract, written on a document are materially altered by one party, without the consent of the other party the contract is discharged and can not be enforced.
(VI) By breach of contract:
A contract may be discharged by breach if one of the parties to a contract break the promise, the injured party has not only a right damages but it is also discharge from performing his part of the contract.
(i) Actual breach:
It occurs when a party fails to perform a contract, where performance is due.
(ii) Anticipatory breach:
An anticipatory breach contract occurs before the time fixed for performance has arrived. It may happen in two ways.
(iii) Express breach:
In express breach a party to contract communicates to the other party, his intention not be perform the contract on his part.
(iv) Implied breach:
In implied breach party to the contract does not act. Which makes the performance of the contract impossible,
3. Conclusion:
To conclusion it can be said that, when the rights and obligations arising out of a contract are extinguished the contract is said to be discharged. The contractual tie may be loosend and contract may be terminated under different modes under contract act.

SEARCH ENGINE

Using Search Engines to Find Information on the Web

INTRODUCTION:

                                Computer and internet are two important inventions that have created a number of facilities for human beings. All of its services are important but information search is a very useful service that has made easy for general public to gain

global knowlege sitting in any corner of the globe. Internet contains large amount of data about different topics in the shape of web pages. But we will have to use search engine to find various information on the world wide web.

What is search engine
A sarch engine is a website having search engine software. Search engine provide the facility to find the required websites about any particular topic on the internet by using keywords specified by the user.

 There are several types of search engines and searches may cover titles of documents, URL's, headers, or full text. Keep in mind that the results you get from one search engine may not match the results you get from another search engine. In fact, they are often different due to the way each search engine behaves. Therefore, it may actually be beneficial to use more than one search engine on a regular basis.

How web search engines work

A search engine operates in the following order:

1. Web crawling
2. Indexing
3. Searching^[10]

Web search engines work by storing information about many web pages. These pages are retrieved by a Web crawler (sometimes also known as a spider) — an automated Web browser which follows every link on the site.
 The contents of each page are then analyzed to determine how it should be indexed (for example, words can be extracted from the titles, page content, headings, or special fields called meta tags). Data about web pages are stored in an index database for use in later queries. The purpose of an index is to allow information to be found as quickly as possible.
When a user enters a query into a search engine (typically by using keywords), the engine examines its index and provides a listing of best-matching web pages according to its criteria, usually with a short summary containing the document's title and sometimes parts of the text. The index is built from the information stored with the data and the method by which the information is indexed.

    ^] Most search engines support the use of the boolean operators AND, OR and NOT to further specify the search query. Boolean operators are for literal searches that allow the user to refine and extend the terms of the search. The engine looks for the words or phrases exactly as entered.

Some search engines provide an advanced feature called proximity search which allows users to define the distance between keywords.^[10]
There is also concept-based searching where the research involves using statistical analysis on pages containing the words or phrases you search for. As well, natural language queries allow the user to type a question in the same form one would ask it to a human. A site like this would be ask.com.

The usefulness of a search engine depends on the relevance of the result set it gives back. While there may be millions of web pages that include a particular word or phrase, some pages may be more relevant, popular, or authoritative than others. Most search engines employ methods to rank the results to provide the "best" results first. How a search engine decides which pages are the best matches, and what order the results should be shown in, varies widely from one engine to another.^[10] The methods also change over time as Internet usage changes and new techniques evolve.
.
Most Web search engines are commercial ventures supported by advertising revenue and, as a result, some employ, the practice of allowing advertisers to pay money to have their listings ranked higher in search results. Those search engines which do not accept money for their search engine results make money by running search related ads alongside the regular search engine results. The search engines make money every time someone clicks on one of these ads.

Market share

Search engine	Market share in May 2013
Google	82.80%
Yahoo!	6.42%
Baidu	4.89%
Bing	3.91%
Yandex	1.7%
Ask	0.52%
AOL	0.3%

Search engine bias

Although search engines are programmed to rank websites based on their popularity and relevancy, empirical studies indicate various political, economic, and social biases in the information they provide.^[17][18] These biases could be a direct result of economic and commercial processes (e.g., companies that advertise with a search engine can become also more popular in its organic search results), and political processes (e.g., the removal of search results in order to comply with local laws).^[19] Google Bombing is one example of an attempt to manipulate search results for political, social or commercial reasons.

ALL CONTRACTS ARE AGREEMENTS BUT ALL AGREEMENT,contract,promise,agreement,consideration,contract act 1872,enforceability by lawS ARE NOT CONTRACTS

It is a valid and true statement. Before we can critically examine the statement, it is necessary to understand the meaning of agreement and contract. According to section 2(a) "every promise on every set of promises forming the consideration for each other an agreement.

It is fact an agreement is a proposal and its acceptance, by which two or more person or parties promises to do abstain from doing an act. But a contract according to section 2(h) of the Indian Contract Act, "An agreement enforceable by law is a contract. It is clear these definitions that the there elements of a contract ore

(a) Agreement Contractual Obligation

(b) Enforceability by Law.

For Example: X invites his friend to tea and the latter accepts the invitation. This is a social agreement not a contract because it does not imply any legal obligation.

We can say that (a) All contracts are agreements, (b) But all agreements are not contracts. (A) All Contracts are Agreements

For a Contract to be there an agreement is essential; without an agreement, there can be no contract. As the saying goes, "where there is smoke, there is fire; for without fire, there can be no smoke". It could will be said, "where there is contract, there is agreement without an agreement there can be no contract". Just as a fire gives birth to smoke, in the same way, an agreement gives birth to a contract.

Another essential element of a contract is the legal obligation for the parties to the contract, there are many agreements that do not entail any legal obligations. As such, these agreements cannot be called contracts.

All Agreements are not Contracts :

An agreement is termed a contract only when it is enforceable by law. All agreements are not necessarily legally enforceable. It can rightly be said that an agreement has a much wider scope than a contract. For example that agreements are not legally binding are an invitation to dinner or to go for a walk and its acceptance. These are agreements not contracts.

An agreement does not necessarily imply a legal obligation on the parties to the agreement. It is import here to clarify what exactly is an obligation. Obligation is a legal tie which imposes upon a person or persons the necessity of doing or abstaining from doing definite act or acts.

An agreement need not necessarily be within the framework of law and be legally enforceable. If it is, then it is a contract. A promises B to do physical harm to C whom, the latter does not like and B promises to pay A Rs. 1000 to do that, it cannot be termed as a contract because such an act would be against the law. Any agreement of which the object or consideration is unlawful is void and cannot be called a contract.

It would be clear from what has been said so far that an agreement has a much wider scope than a contract. An Agreement implies fulfilling some agreed condition. It does not necessarily imply that the stipulated conditions conform to the law and are enforceable by it. It may be said that an agreement is the genus of which contract is the species. It also makes it clear that all agreements are not contracts but all contracts are agreements.

METHODS OF DEPRECIATION

DEFINE DEPRECIATION, WHAT ARE VARIOUS METHODS OF DEPRECIATION?

DEFINITION:

“DEPRECIATION IS THE GRADUAL AND PERMANENT ECREASE IN THE VALUE OF AN ASSET DUE TO ANY CAUSE”

Depreciation refers to two very different but related concepts:

1. the decrease in value of assets (fair value depreciation), and
2. the allocation of the cost of assets to periods in which the assets are used (depreciation with the matching principle).

Accounting concept

In determining the profits (net income) from an activity, the receipts from the activity must be reduced by appropriate costs. One such cost is the cost of assets used but not currently consumed in the activity.^[1] Such costs must be allocated to the period of use. The cost of an asset so allocated is the difference between the amount paid for the asset and the amount expected to be received upon its disposition. Depreciation is any method of allocating such net cost to those periods expected to benefit from use of the asset. The asset is referred to as a depreciable asset. Depreciation is a method of allocation, not valuation.^]

Effect on cash

Depreciation expense does not require current outlay of cash. However, the cost of acquiring depreciable assets may require such outlay. Thus, depreciation does not affect a statement of cash flows, but cost of acquiring assets does.

Methods of depreciation

There are several methods for calculating depreciation, generally based on either the passage of time or the level of activity (or use) of the asset.

Straight-line depreciation

Straight-line depreciation is the simplest and most-often-used technique, in which the company estimates the salvage value of the asset at the end of the period during which it will be used to generate revenues (useful life) and will expense a portion of original cost in equal increments over that period. The salvage value is an estimate of the value of the asset at the time it will be sold or disposed of; it may be zero or even negative. Salvage value is also known as scrap value or residual value.

Straight-line method:

Book value at beginning of year	Depreciation expense	Accumulated depreciation	Book value at end of year
$17,000 (original cost)	$3,000	$3,000	$14,000
$14,000	$3,000	$6,000	$11,000
$11,000	$3,000	$9,000	$8,000
$8,000	$3,000	$12,000	$5,000
$5,000	$3,000	$15,000	$2,000 (scrap value)

If the vehicle were to be sold and the sales price exceeded the depreciated value (net book value) then the excess would be considered a gain and subject to depreciation recapture. In addition, this gain above the depreciated value would be recognized as ordinary income by the tax office. If the sales price is ever less than the book value, the resulting capital loss is tax deductible. If the sale price were ever more than the original book value, then the gain above the original book value is recognized as a capital gain.

Declining-balance method (or Reducing balance method)

Depreciation methods that provide for a higher depreciation charge in the first year of an asset's life and gradually decreasing charges in subsequent years are called accelerated depreciation methods. This may be a more realistic reflection of an asset's actual expected benefit from the use of the asset: many assets are most useful when they are new. One popular accelerated method is the declining-balance method. Under this method the book value is multiplied by a fixed rate.

Annual Depreciation = Depreciation Rate * Book Value at Beginning of Year

Book value at beginning of year	Depreciation rate	Depreciation expense	Accumulated depreciation	Book value at end of year
$1,000 (original cost)	40%	$400	$400	$600
$600	40%	$240	$640	$360
$360	40%	$144	$784	$216
$216	40%	$86.40	$870.40	$129.60
$129.60	$129.60 - $100	$29.60	$900	$100 (scrap value)

When using the double-declining-balance method, the salvage value is not considered in determining the annual depreciation, but the book value of the asset being depreciated is never brought below its salvage value, regardless of the method used. The process continues until the salvage value or the end of the asset's useful life, is reached. In the last year of depreciation a subtraction might be needed in order to prevent book value from falling below estimated Scrap Value.

Since double-declining-balance depreciation does not always depreciate an asset fully by its end of life, some methods also compute a straight-line depreciation each year, and apply the greater of the two. This has the effect of converting from declining-balance depreciation to straight-line depreciation at a midpoint in the asset's life.

It is possible to find a rate that would allow for full depreciation by its end of life with the formula:

,

where N is the estimated life of the asset (for example, in years).

Activity depreciation

Activity depreciation methods are not based on time, but on a level of activity. This could be miles driven for a vehicle, or a cycle count for a machine. When the asset is acquired, its life is estimated in terms of this level of activity. Assume the vehicle above is estimated to go 50,000 miles in its lifetime. The per-mile depreciation rate is calculated as: ($17,000 cost - $2,000 salvage) / 50,000 miles = $0.30 per mile. Each year, the depreciation expense is then calculated by multiplying the rate by the actual activity level.

Sum-of-years' digits method

Sum-of-years' digits is a depreciation method that results in a more accelerated write-off than straight line, but less than declining-balance method. Under this method annual depreciation is determined by multiplying the Depreciable Cost by a schedule of fractions.

depreciable cost = original cost − salvage value

book value = original cost − accumulated depreciation

Example: If an asset has original cost of $1000, a useful life of 5 years and a salvage value of $100, compute its depreciation schedule.

First, determine years' digits. Since the asset has useful life of 5 years, the years' digits are: 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1.

Next, calculate the sum of the digits. 5+4+3+2+1=15

The sum of the digits can also be determined by using the formula (n²+n)/2 where n is equal to the useful life of the asset. The example would be shown as (5²+5)/2=15

Depreciation rates are as follows:

5/15 for the 1st year, 4/15 for the 2nd year, 3/15 for the 3rd year, 2/15 for the 4th year, and 1/15 for the 5th year.

Book value at beginning of year	Total depreciable cost	Depreciation rate	Depreciation expense	Accumulated depreciation	Book value at end of year
$1,000 (original cost)	$900	5/15	$300 ($900 * 5/15)	$300	$700
$700	$900	4/15	$240 ($900 * 4/15)	$540	$460
$460	$900	3/15	$180 ($900 * 3/15)	$720	$280
$280	$900	2/15	$120 ($900 * 2/15)	$840	$160
$160	$900	1/15	$60 ($900 * 1/15)	$900	$100 (scrap value)

Units-of-production depreciation method

Under the units-of-production method, useful life of the asset is expressed in terms of the total number of units expected to be produced:

Suppose, an asset has original cost $70,000, salvage value $10,000, and is expected to produce 6,000 units.

Depreciation per unit = ($70,000−10,000) / 6,000 = $10

10 × actual production will give the depreciation cost of the current year.

The table below illustrates the units-of-production depreciation schedule of the asset.

Book value at beginning of year	Units of production	Depreciation cost per unit	Depreciation expense	Accumulated depreciation	Book value at end of year
$70,000 (original cost)	1,000	$10	$10,000	$10,000	$60,000
$60,000	1,100	$10	$11,000	$21,000	$49,000
$49,000	1,200	$10	$12,000	$33,000	$37,000
$37,000	1,300	$10	$13,000	$46,000	$24,000
$24,000	1,400	$10	$14,000	$60,000	$10,000 (scrap value)

Depreciation stops when book value is equal to the scrap value of the asset. In the end, the sum of accumulated depreciation and scrap value equals the original cost.

Units of time depreciation

Units of time depreciation is similar to units of production, and is used for depreciation equipment used in mine or natural resource exploration, or cases where the amount the asset is used is not linear year to year.

A simple example can be given for construction companies, where some equipment is used only for some specific purpose. Depending on the number of projects, the equipment will be used and depreciation charged accordingly.

Composite depreciation method

The composite method is applied to a collection of assets that are not similar, and have different service lives. For example, computers and printers are not similar, but both are part of the office equipment. Depreciation on all assets is determined by using the straight-line-depreciation method.

Asset	Historical cost	Salvage value	Depreciable cost	Life	Depreciation per year
Computers	$5,500	$500	$5,000	5	$1,000
Printers	$1,000	$100	$ 900	3	$ 300
Total	$ 6,500	$600	$5,900	4.5	$1,300

Composite life equals the total depreciable cost divided by the total depreciation per year. $5,900 / $1,300 = 4.5 years.

Composite depreciation rate equals depreciation per year divided by total historical cost. $1,300 / $6,500 = 0.20 = 20%

Depreciation expense equals the composite depreciation rate times the balance in the asset account (historical cost). (0.20 * $6,500) $1,300. Debit depreciation expense and credit accumulated depreciation.

When an asset is sold, debit cash for the amount received and credit the asset account for its original cost. Debit the difference between the two to accumulated depreciation. Under the composite method no gain or loss is recognized on the sale of an asset. Theoretically, this makes sense because the gains and losses from assets sold before and after the composite life will average themselves out.

Depletion Method of Depreciation:

Learning Objectives:

1.      What is depletion method of depreciation? Explain with example.

Depletion method of depreciation is especially suited to mines, quarries, sand pits, etc. According to it the cost of the asset is divided by the total workable deposits. In this way, rate of depreciation per unit of output is ascertained. Depreciation in any particular year is charged on the basis of the output during that year.

Example:

A mine was acquired at a cost of $20,00,000 the quantity of minerals expected to be mined is 5,00,000 tons, the rate of depreciation per unit will be $4 i.e., (20,00,000 / 5,00,000). If during the year 25,000 tons minerals is extracted, the amount of depreciation will be 25,000 × 4 = $1,00,000.

Intangible Assets Subject to Amortization Allocating the cost of intangible assets is called amortization cost allocation for intangibles.. For an intangible asset with a finite useful life, we allocate its capitalized cost less any estimated residual value to periods in which the asset is expected to contribute to the company's revenue-generating activities. This requires that we determine the asset's useful life, its amortization base (cost less estimated residual value), and the appropriate allocation method, similar to our depreciating tangible assets.