Interview Dilemma: How Would You Answer These Tricky HR Questions on Contracts?

In an interview, the HR manager asked some questions from my friend which are as follows:

1. Can any contractor start working in a company without having a license, or can't they start working until they receive a contractor license?
2. What is the difference between a worker and a workman?
3. What is the difference between a legal contract and an illegal contract?

Please share your ideas on these questions.

1. The contractor is required to take a license before the execution of the work (which is practically not possible). Refer to section 12(1):

12. Licensing of contractors

(1) With effect from such date as the appropriate government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint, no contractor to whom this Act applies shall undertake or execute any work through contract labor except under and in accordance with a license issued in that behalf by the licensing officer.

2. The worker is single and workmen group of workers.

3. Please refer to the definition of a contract under the Indian Contract Act and section 10 of the Indian Contract Act.

Essential Elements of a Contract

Main Article: Essential Elements of a Contract

Essential Elements of a Contract as defined in Section 10 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872:

1. Agreement - Offer and Acceptance
2. Legal purpose
3. Lawful Consideration
4. Capacity to contract
5. Consent to contract
6. Lawful object
7. Certainty
8. Possibility of Performance
9. Not expressly declared void
10. Legal formalities like Writing, Registration, etc.

Read more: Indian Contract Act, 1872 - LawNotes.in

If any contract does not have the above elements, it would be an illegal contract.

Thank you for your reply. However, regarding question no. 2, the difference between a worker and a workman is not as mentioned. My friend provided the same response, but the interviewer rejected his answer.

Regards

Maybe the only logical explanation, if the question is what is the difference between "Worker" and "Workman" (not "workmen"), would be that "Workman" is defined in many of the labor acts such as the ID Act, etc. However, there is no definition for the word "worker" in any of the acts. Please revert back if you get any answer better than the above.