List of top Legal Studies Questions

Principle: When one person signifies to another his willingness to do or abstain from doing anything, with a view to obtaining the assent of that person to such an act or abstinence, he is said to have made a proposal.
Fact: "Ramanuj telegraphed to Shyam Sunder, writing: \emph{Will you sell me your Rolls Royce Car? Telegram the lowest cash price.}" Shyam Sunder replied by telegram: \emph{"Lowest price for Car is Rs. 20 lakh."} Ramanuj immediately sent his consent through telegram stating: \emph{"Agree to buy the Car for Rs. 20 lakh asked by you."} Shyam Sunder refused to sell the car.
Principle: Every person, who is of the age of majority, is competent to contract according to the law to which he is subject.
Facts: A minor mortgaged his house in favour of Thakur Das, a money lender, to secure a loan of Rs. 20,000. A part of this, i.e., Rs. 10,500 was actually advanced to him. While considering the proposed advance, the attorney for the money lender received information that the plaintiff was still a minor. The minor then sued to cancel the mortgage on the ground of being underage at the time of execution. The money lender prayed for a refund of Rs. 10,300 from the minor.
Principle: A person is of sound mind for making a contract if, at the time of making it, he is capable of understanding it and forming a rational judgment about its effect on his interests.
Facts: Mr. X, usually of sound mind but occasionally of unsound mind, enters into a contract with Mr. V when he was of unsound mind. Later, Mr. Y, upon learning this, wants to sue Mr. X.
Principle: Nothing is an offence merely by reason of its being done with the knowledge that it is likely to cause harm, if it be done without any criminal intention to cause harm, and in good faith for the purpose of preventing or avoiding other harm to a person or property.
Facts: Mr. Sharman, the Captain of a steam vessel, suddenly and without any fault or negligence on his part, finds himself in such a position that, before he can stop his vessel, he must inevitably run down a boat B, with twenty or thirty passengers on board, unless he changes the course of his vessel, and that, by changing his course, he must incur the risk of running down a boat C with only two passengers on board and which he may possibly clear.
Principle: Wilful rash driving is an offence.
Facts: Mr. Tiwari was driving his car after drinking alcohol. Police books him for wilful negligent driving. Is the act of the police lawful?
Principle: Whoever, intending to take dishonestly any movable property out of the possession of any person without that person's consent, moves that property with an intention to take it, is said to commit theft.
Facts: Y cuts down a tree on Z's ground with the intention of dishonestly taking it out of Z's possession without Z's consent. Y could not take away the tree.
Some philosophers believe that a concept which cannot be verified can still be valid because of its inner logic which ennobles it.
In light of this, decide the status of the statement: “Every person has certain inherent and inalienable rights which must be protected by Rule of Law.”
Principle: Only Parliament or State Legislatures have the authority to enact laws on their own. No law made by the State can take away a person's fundamental right.
Facts: Parliament enacted a law which, according to a group of lawyers, is violating the fundamental rights of traders. A group of lawyers files a writ petition challenging the Constitutional validity of the statute, seeking relief to quash the statute and further direct Parliament to enact a new law.
Rule
A. The fundamental right to freedom of association includes the right to form an association as well as not join an association.
B. The fundamental right to freedom of association also includes the freedom to decide with whom to associate.
C. The fundamental right to freedom of association does not extend to the right to realize the objectives of forming the association.
D. Fundamental rights are applicable only to laws made by or administrative actions of the State and do not apply to actions of private persons.
E. Any law in contravention of fundamental rights is unconstitutional and therefore cannot bind any person.
Facts: Gajodhar Pharmaceuticals, a private company, offered an employment contract of two years to Syed Monirul Alam. One of the clauses in the employment contract provided that Syed Monirul Alam must join Gajodhar Mazdoor Sangh (GMS), one of the trade unions active in Gajodhar Pharmaceuticals.
Rule: Whoever finds an unattended object can keep it unless the true owner claims that object. This does not affect the property owner’s right to the ownership of the property on which the object is found. The right to ownership of a property does not include the right to ownership of unattended objects on that property.
Facts: Elizabeth is the CEO of a global management services company in Chennai and is on her way to Ranchi to deliver the convocation address at India’s leading business school on the outskirts of Ranchi. Flying business class on Dolphin Airlines, she is entitled to use the lounge owned by the airline in Chennai Airport while waiting for her flight. She finds a diamond ear-ring on the floor of the lounge and gives it to the staff of Dolphin Airlines expressly stating that in the event of nobody claiming the ear-ring within six months, she would claim it back. The airline sells the ear-ring after eight months and Elizabeth files a case to recover the value of the ear-ring from the airline when she is informed about its sale.

Rules
Rule A: The State shall not discriminate, either directly or indirectly, on the grounds of sex, race, religion, caste, creed, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, pregnancy, place of birth, gender orientation or any other status.
Rule B: Direct discrimination occurs when for a reason related to one or more prohibited grounds a person or group of persons is treated less favourably than another person or another group of persons in a comparable situation.
Rule C: Indirect discrimination occurs when a provision, criterion or practice which is neutral on the face of it would have the effect of putting persons having a status or a characteristic associated with one or more prohibited grounds at a particular disadvantage compared with other persons.
Rule D: Discrimination shall be justified when such discrimination is absolutely necessary in order to promote the well-being of disadvantaged groups, such as women, dalits, religious minorities, sexual minorities or disabled persons.
Facts: On 2nd October 2010, the Governor of the state of Bihar ordered the release of all women prisoners who were serving sentence of less than one year imprisonment to mark the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday

Rules:
A. A minor is a person who is below the age of eighteen. However, where a guardian administers the minor’s property the age of majority is twenty-one.
A. A minor is not permitted by law to enter into a contract. Hence, where a minor enters into a contract with a major person the contract is not enforceable. This effectively means that neither the minor nor the other party can make any claim on the basis of the contract.
A. In a contract with a minor, if the other party hands over any money or confers any other benefit on the minor, the same shall not be recoverable from the minor unless the other party was deceived by the minor to hand over money or any other benefit. The other party will have to show that the minor misrepresented her age, he was ignorant about the age of the minor and that he handed over the benefit on the basis of such representation.
Facts: Ajay convinces Bandita, a girl aged 18 that she should sell her land to him. Bandita’s mother Chaaru is her guardian. Nonetheless Bandita, without the permission of Chaaru, sells the land to Ajay for a total sum of rupees fifty lakh, paid in full and final settlement of the price. Chaaru challenges this transaction claiming that Bandita is a minor and hence the possession of the land shall not be given to Ajay. Thus Ajay is in a difficult situation and has no idea how to recover his money from Bandita.

Rules
A. The act of using threats to force another person to enter into a contract is called coercion.
B. The act of using influence on another and taking undue advantage of that person is called undue influence.
C. In order to prove coercion, the existence of the use of threat, in any form and manner, is necessary. If coercion is proved, the person who has been so threatened can refuse to abide by the contract.
D. In order to prove undue influence, there has to be a pre-existing relationship between the parties to a contract. The relationship has to be of such a nature that one is in a position to influence the other. If it is proven that there has been undue influence, the party who has been so influenced need not enforce the contract or perform his obligation under the contract.
Facts: Aadil and Baalu are best friends. Aadil is the son of multi-millionaire business person, Chulbul who owns Maakhan Pharmaceuticals. Baalu is the son of a bank employee, Dhanraj. One day, Aadil is abducted from his office by Baalu. Chulbul receives a phone call from Dhanraj telling him that if he does not make Baalu the CEO of Maakhan Pharmaceuticals, Aadil will be killed. Chulbul reluctantly agrees to make Baalu the CEO. Subsequently Chulbul and Baalu sign an employment contract. However as soon as Aadil is released and safely returns home, Chulbul tells Baalu that he shall not enforce the employment contract. Baalu and Dhanraj are not sure as to what is to be done next.

Rule A: When a State undertakes any measure, the effects of the measure must be the same for all those who are affected by it.
Facts: 100 mountaineers embarked on an extremely risky climbing expedition in Leh. Weather conditions worsened five days into the expedition and the mountaineers are trapped under heavy snow. The government received information of this tragedy only two weeks after the unfortunate incident and has only 24 hours in which to send rescue helicopters. Weather stations across the world confirm that this particular region of Leh will experience blizzards of unprecedented intensity for almost two weeks after this 24 hour window, rendering any helicopter activity in the region impossible and certain death for anyone left behind. The government has only five rescue helicopters with a maximum capacity of 50 people (excluding pilots and requisite soldiers) and these helicopters can fly once in 24 hours to such altitudes.
As the Air Force gets ready to send the helicopters, an emergency hearing is convened in the Supreme Court to challenge this measure as this would leave 50 people to die.

Rules
A. A person is an employee of another if the mode and the manner in which he or she carries out his work is subject to control and supervision of the latter.
B. An employer is required to provide compensation to his or her employees for any injury caused by an accident arising in the course of employment. The words ‘in the course of the employment’ means in the course of the work which the employee is contracted to do and which is incidental to it.
Facts: Messrs. Zafar Abidi and Co. (Company) manufactures bidis with the help of persons known as ‘pattadars’. The pattadars are supplied tobacco and leaves by the Company and are required to roll them into bidis and bring the bidis back to the Company. The pattadars are free to roll the bidis either in the factory or anywhere else they prefer. They are not bound to attend the factory for any fixed hours of work or for any fixed number of days. Neither are they required to roll up any fixed number of bidis. The Company verifies whether the bidis adhere to the specified instructions or not and pays the pattadars on the basis of the number of bidis that are found to be of right quality. Aashish Mathew is one of the pattadars of the Company.
He was hit by a car just outside the precinct of the factory while he was heading to have lunch in a nearby food-stall. Aashish Mathew has applied for compensation from the Company.

Rules
A. Whoever intending to take any moveable property out of the possession of any person without that person’s consent, moves that property out of his or her possession, is said to commit theft.
B. A person who, without lawful excuse, damages any property belonging to another intending to damage any such property shall be guilty of causing criminal damage. C. Damage means any impairment of the value of a property.
Facts:
Veena, an old lady of 78 years, used to live with her granddaughter Indira. Veena was ill and therefore bed-ridden for several months. In those months, she could not tolerate any noise and it “became quite difficult to clean her room.” After she died, Indira hired a cleaner, Lucky, to clean the room and throw away any rubbish that may be there.
There was a pile of old newspapers which Veena had stacked in a corner of her room. Lucky asked Indira if he should clear away the pile of old newspapers, to which she said yes. Lucky took the pile to a municipality rubbish dump. While Lucky was sorting and throwing away the newspapers, he was very surprised to find a beautiful painting in between two sheets of paper. He thought that Indira probably wouldn’t want this old painting back, especially because it was torn in several places and the colour was fading. He took the painting home, mounted it on a wooden frame and hung it on the wall of his bedroom.
Unknown to him, the painting was an old masterpiece, and worth twenty thousand rupees. Before mounting the painting, Lucky pasted it on a plain sheet of paper so that it does not tear any more. By doing so, he made its professional restoration very difficult and thereby reduced its value by half. 
Lucky’s neighbour Kamala discovered that the painting belonged to Indira. With the motive of returning the painting to Indira, Kamala climbed through an open window into Lucky’s room when he was away one afternoon and removed the painting from his house.

Rules
A. When land is sold, all ‘fixtures’ on the land are also deemed to have been sold.
B. If a moveable thing is attached to the land or any building on the land, then it becomes a ‘fixture’.
Facts: 
Khaleeda wants to sell a plot of land she owns in Baghmara, Meghalaya and the sale value decided for the plot includes the fully-furnished palatial six-bedroom house that she has built on it five years ago. She sells it to Gurpreet for sixty lakh rupees. After completing the sale, she removes the expensive Iranian carpet which used to cover the entire wooden floor of one of the bedrooms. The room had very little light and Khaleeda used this light-coloured radiant carpet to negate some of the darkness in the room. Gurpreet, after moving in, realizes this and files a case to recover the carpet from Khaleeda

Rule A: An owner of land has the right to use the land in any manner he or she desires. The owner of land also owns the space above and the depths below it.
Rule B: Rights above the land extend only to the point they are essential to any use or enjoyment of land.
Rule C: An owner cannot claim infringement of her property right if the space above his or her land is put to reasonable use by someone else at a height at which the owner would have no reasonable use of it and it does not affect the reasonable enjoyment of his or her land.
Ramesh’s case: Ramesh owns an acre of land on the outskirts of Sullurpeta, Andhra Pradesh. The Government of India launches its satellites into space frequently from Sriharikota, near Sullurpeta. The Government of India does not deny that once the satellite launch has traveled the distance of almost 7000 kilometres it passes over Ramesh’s property. Ramesh files a case claiming that the Government of India has violated his property rights by routing its satellite over his property, albeit 7000 kilometres directly above it.

Executive : President :: Judiciary : ..............
Principles:
(i) A master is liable for the wrongful acts of his servant.
(ii) A person can be called a servant only if there is a relationship of employment and he acts under the order and on behalf of his master.
Facts:
X Bank launched a saving scheme for poor sections of society allowing deposits of Rs.\ 10 per day. Y, an unemployed youth, collected money from several customers and, on their behalf, deposited the money at the Bank every day. The Bank gave Y a small commission. After some time, Y disappeared without depositing the customers’ money. The customers sue, alleging the Bank is liable. Decide:
Principles: X propounds the principle that everyone in this world always speaks lies.
Facts: X wants to know whether this principle is logically true or false.
Principle: Whosoever enters into or upon the property in the possession of another, with intent to commit an offence or to intimidate or annoy any person in possession of the property, and remains there with such intent, is guilty of criminal trespass.
Facts: The accused entered at night into a house to carry on intimate relations with an unmarried major girl on her invitation and information that her family members were absent. However, he was caught by her uncle before he could get away.
Bank nationalization case relates to the nationalization of
Which of the following is not included within the meaning of intellectual property?
Principles:
(i) Freedom consists in making choices out of two or more alternatives.
(ii) Everyone has freedom to speak.
Facts:
X says his freedom to speech includes freedom not to speak. X’s assertion is: