4.2 Persons Incompetent to Contract

(a) Minor The rule: the age of majority — 18 years (the Code's personality part): below it, the minor. The minor's contract: voidable/void by the Nepali design — the protection's logic (the minor shielded, the adult party bearing the risk); the era's classic doctrine: the minor's contract is a nullity from the minor's side — no enforcement against him, no ratification by him of the void at majority's attainment (the fresh-contract requirement: after attaining majority he must contract anew — the old promise cannot be ratified into validity). The exceptions and qualifications (the balanced list): Necessaries supplied: the minor's estate charged for necessaries (food, clothing, shelter, education, medical care — suited to his condition in life): the supplier's quasi-contractual reimbursement (Unit 7's unjust-enrichment face — the minor personally not liable, his estate charged); Restitution's limits: the minor's enrichment returnable where the benefit remains (the justice balance — the courts' discretion in the return of goods-and-money traceable); Beneficial contracts: the contracts of service-and-apprenticeship beneficial to the minor (the employment-for-training line) — the doctrine's recognized softening; No estoppel against a minor: the minor falsely representing himself adult cannot be estopped from pleading minority — the protection over the representation (the adult party's duty to verify). The consequences for the adult party: he is bound by his own promises (no avoidance from his…