Ratification - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition ratification

Definition :

Ratification, confirmation. 'A contract of agency may also be created by ratification. Where A. purports to act as agent for B., either having no authority at all or having no authority to do that particular act, the subsequent adoption by B. of A.'s act has the same legal consequences as if B. had originallyauthorised the act. But there can be no ratification unless A purported to act as agent, and to act for B.; and in such a case B alone can ratify. Nor can there be any binding ratification of any agreement which was originally void' (Odgers on the Common Law), or where the principal was not in existence at the time of the act, either in fact or in the contemplation of law as in the case of persons such as trustees in bankruptcy or personal repre-sentatives who acquire title by relation, Kelner v. Baxter, LR 2 CP 174; and see also NOTICE TO QUIT. Omnis ratihabitio retrotrahitur et mandato 'quiparatur (Co. Litt. 207 a). As to the ratification of contracts by infants, see the Infants Relief Act, 1874, and INFANT.

Ratification is the noun of the verb 'ratify'. It means the act of ratifying, confirmation and sanction. The expression 'ratify' means to approve and accept formally. It means to conform, by expressing consent, approval or formal sanction, State (Anti-Corruption Branch) v. R.C. Anand, (2004) 4 SCC 615 (620).

Confirmation and acceptance of previous act, thereby making the act valid from the moment it was done, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., 1268.