Section 98

Section 98 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872, addresses the effect of declaring a contract void when it is in part unlawful and in part lawful. According to this section, if any part of a single consideration for one or more objects, or if any one or more of the objects, of an agreement, is unlawful, the entire agreement is void, unless it appears that the lawful object or objects of the agreement can be separated from the unlawful, and that the agreement is not, as to the lawful object or objects, voidable under section 24 or under any other section of this Act. The actual statutory language is: 'If any part of a single consideration for one or more objects, or if any one or more of the objects, of an agreement, is unlawful, the entire agreement is void, unless it appears that the lawful object or objects of the agreement can be separated from the unlawful, and that the agreement is not, as to the lawful object or objects, voidable under section 24 or under any other section of this Act.' Judicial interpretations have emphasized that the lawful and unlawful parts of the agreement must be separable.