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22. "Fraud" has been defined under Section 17 of Indian Contract Act, which reads as under:

"17. "Fraud" defined.--'Fraud' means and includes any of the following acts committed by a party to a contract, or with his connivance, or by his agent, with intent to deceive another party thereto of his agent, or to induce him to enter into the contract:--

(emphasis supplied)"

The Supreme Court in the case of Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam v. Raj Kumar Rajinder Singh, reported in (2019) 14 SCC 449 , has held as under:
"68. Fraud vitiates every solemn proceeding and no right can be claimed by a fraudster on the ground of technicalities. On behalf of the appellants, reliance has been placed on the definition of "fraud" as defined in Black's Law Dictionary, which is as under:

69.Halsbury's Laws of England has defined "fraud" as follows:

"Whenever a person makes a false statement which he does not actually and honestly believe to be true, for purpose of civil liability, the statement is as fraudulent as if he had stated that which NEUTRAL CITATION NO. 2025:MPHC-GWL:31638 16 SA-137-2006 he did know to be true, or know or believed to be false. Proof of absence of actual and honest belief is all that is necessary to satisfy the requirement of the law, whether the representation has been made recklessly or deliberately, indifference or recklessness on the part of the representor as to the truth or falsity of the representation affords merely an instance of absence of such a belief."

70. In Kerr on the Law of Fraud and Mistake, "fraud" has been defined thus:

"It is not easy to give a definition of what constitutes fraud in the extensive significance in which that term is understood by Civil Courts of Justice. The courts have always avoided hampering themselves by defining or laying down as a general proposition what shall be held to constitute fraud. Fraud is infinite in variety... Courts have always declined to define it, ... reserving to themselves the liberty to deal with it under whatever form it may present itself. Fraud ... may be said to include property (sic properly) all acts, omissions, and concealments which involve a breach of legal or equitable duty, trust or confidence, justly reposed, and are injurious to another, or by which an undue or unconscientious advantage is taken of another. All surprise, trick, cunning, dissembling and other unfair way that is used to cheat anyone is considered as fraud. Fraud in all cases implies a wilful act on the part of anyone, whereby another is sought to be deprived, by illegal or inequitable means, of what he is entitled to."