The consent of the parties is said to be free when they are of the same mind on all the material terms of the contract. The parties are said to be of the same mind when they agree about the subject matter of the contract in the same sense and at the same time.

According to Section 11 : 

all the agreements are contracts if they are made by free consent of parties. Consent is said to be free and two or more persons are said to consent when they agree upon the same thing in the same sense (Sec. 13).

According to Section 14, consent is said to be free when it is not caused by :

1. Coercion, 

2. undue influence, 

3. fraud, 

4. misrepresentation, 

5. mistake.

Example: 

Ajay is forced to sell his Maruti car for ₹ 25,000 to Vijay at the point of pistol. In this case, Ajay sells the car but his consent is not free. Under coercion, Vijay got Ajay’s consent.

Importance of Free Consent for Contracts : 

For a contract to be valid, the free consent of the parties is most important. If any of the party’s consent is not free, then that agreement is not valid on his part. Importance of free consent can be explained by following:

1.If by fraud or misrepresentation, one party has given the property to other, then the first party has the right to take it back.