JUDGMENT - V.V. VAZE, J.:---"If dictatorial England could not bring itself to recognise the sanctity of promises to the extent of making gratuitous promise a binding contract, what a paradox it would be if we were to carry change through today after the weakening of the belief in the sanctity or promises which this past country witnessed."

2. So observed Atiyah in "The Rise and Fall of Freedom of Contract" page 689. The famous dictum written by Maine Way back in 1861 in his "Ancient Law" that the movement of progressive societies has been a movement from status to contract is being eroded in modern times by the emergence of the State and State controlled institutions dominating the field of contract. The pre-industrial revolution are left little freedom to the employee to offer his services to any one he pleases because the number of employers were limited and the status or class of the employer and employee was well-defined and demarcated. The industrial revolution gave impetus to the development of a free economic society and the resultant mobility of labour afforded freedom of contract both to the employer and the servant or contractor. This gave rise to the traditional concep

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