law: Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956
  
  16.Power to prohibit contracts in certain cases.-
  (1) If the Central
  
  Government is of opinion that it is necessary to prevent undesirable
  
  speculation in specified securities in any State or area, it may, by
  
  notification in the Official Gazette, declare that no person in the State or
  
  area specified in the notification shall, save with the permission of the
  
  Central Government, enter into any contract for the sale or purchase of any
  
  security specified in the notification except to the extent and in the manner,
  
  if any, specified therein.
  (2) All contracts in
  
  contravention of the provisions of sub-section (1) entered into after the date
  
  of the notification issued thereunder shall be illegal.
  Comment: It would follow that if pursuant to an agreement to do an illegal act
  
  a transaction, in part, takes place which would otherwise be valid if there was
  
  no such prior agreement, then notwithstanding the illegality of the contract
  
  the said completed transaction itself cannot be regarded as invalid. B. O.
  
  I. Finance Ltd. v. The Custodian and others AIR 1997 SUPREME COURT 1952