The question (15 marks)
A company with its principal place of business at Pune nominates a particular e-mail address for receiving purchase orders. A supplier registered at Nagpur sends an order to a different mailbox of the company, using a mail service whose servers are in Singapore, and stipulates in the message that it is to be binding only on receipt of an acknowledgment. No acknowledgment is sent. Three days later the company's automated stock system, which the company had programmed to reorder when stock falls below a threshold, sends the supplier a fresh order which the directors never saw, and the company now disowns it. Advise the parties on attribution, acknowledgment, and the time and place of the two communications. (15 marks)
Unit I (formation of e-contracts; attribution, acknowledgment, time and place); pack ch. 01, sections 5 to 7.
Plan your answer on paper before you look at the authorities — issue first, then the rule, then apply it to these facts.
It tests Unit 1 · E-commerce, Electronic Contracts and the Scheme of the IT Act of Cyber Law.
Authorities you will need
- Information Technology Act
How an answer is marked
A full-marks answer names the issue in one line, states the rule with its section, cites the authority, applies it to these facts and concludes — in that order. The app's model answer for this question is written in exactly that shape, with a checklist to mark your own attempt against.