Free consent of all the parties to an agreement is another essential element. This concept has
two aspects.
(1) consent should be made and
(2) it should be free of any pressure or misunderstanding.

‘Consent’ means that the parties must have agreed upon the same thing in the same sense (sec. 13). There is absence of ‘free consent,’ if the agreement is induced by
(i)coercion,
(ii)undue influence,
(iii) fraud,
(iv) misrepresentation, or
(v)mistake (sec. 14).

If the agreement is vitiated by any of the first four factors, the contract would be voidable and
cannot be enforced by the party guilty of coercion, undue influence etc. The other party (i.e., the aggrieved party) can either reject the contract or accept it, subject to the rules laid down in the act. If the agreement is induced by mutual mistake which is material to the agreement, it would be void (sec. 20)