List of practice Questions

The Supreme Court of India, in South East Asia Marine Engineering & Constructions Ltd. (SEAMEC LTD.) v. Oil India Ltd., (2020) 5 SCC 164, noted that, under the Indian contract law, the consequences of a force majeure event are provided for under Section 56 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 which deals with a contract to do an act which, after the contract is made, becomes impossible, or, by reason of some event which the promisor could not prevent, unlawful, becomes void when the act becomes impossible or unlawful.

When the parties have not provided for what would take place when an event renders the performance of the contract impossible, then Section 56 applies. When the act contracted for becomes impossible, then under Section 56, the parties are exempted from further performance and the contract becomes void. The Court has further held that in Section 56, the word “impossible” is to be taken in its practical and not literal sense.

It must be borne in mind, however, that Section 56 lays down a rule of positive law and does not leave the matter to be determined according to the intention of the parties. However, there is no doubt that the parties may instead choose the consequences that would flow on the happening of an uncertain future event, under Section 32 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872.

The Supreme Court of India has held that the nature of inquiry before the Family Court is, indeed, adjudicatory. It is obliged to resolve the rival claims of the parties and while doing so, it must adhere to the norms prescribed by the statute in that regard and also the foundational principle of fairness of procedure and natural justice.

These provisions plainly reveal that the Family Court is expected to follow procedure known to law, which means insisting on a formal pleading to be filed by both sides, then framing the issues for determination, recording the evidence of the parties to prove the facts asserted by the concerned party, and only thereafter entering upon determination and rendering a decision thereon by recording the reasons for such decision.

For doing this, the Family Court is expected to give notice to the respective parties and provide them sufficient time and opportunity to present their claim in the form of pleadings and evidence before determination of the dispute.

The Supreme Court of India has held that the rationale of granting maintenance from the date of application finds its roots in the object of enacting maintenance legislations, so as to enable the wife to overcome the financial crunch which occurs on separation from the husband. Financial constraints of a dependant spouse hamper their capacity to be effectively represented before the Court.

Enforcement of the order of maintenance is the most challenging issue, which is encountered by the applicants. If maintenance is not paid in a timely manner, it defeats the very object of the social welfare legislation. Execution petitions usually remain pending for months, if not years, which completely nullifies the object of the law.

The Supreme Court of India observed that, while appreciating the existence of the right to peaceful protest against a legislation ..., we have to make it unequivocally clear that public ways and public spaces cannot be occupied in such a manner and that too indefinitely. Democracy and dissent go hand in hand, but then the demonstrations expressing dissent must be in designated places alone.

The present case was not even one of protests taking place in an undesignated area but was a blockage of a public way which caused grave inconvenience to commuters. We cannot accept the plea of the applicants that an indeterminable number of people can assemble whenever they choose to protest.

The present system of appointments as envisaged by the Constitution and as elucidated in the Collegium system makes it clear that the first step is a recommendation from the Collegium of four senior-most judges and presided over by the Chief Justice. This process in turn requires wide consultation by the Chief Justice of the High Court to identify the requisite talent, so as to make the recommendations.

Contrary to some portrayed beliefs, as if this is an extremely subjective system, every Chief Justice is actually required to solicit names from different sources whether it be sitting judges, retired judges, or prominent members of the Bar. It is from this pool of talent that he selects, after a discussion in the collegium, the most suitable candidates. It is thus of utmost importance that the flow of recommendations continues for the appointment process to work successfully.

The current situation of vacancies, especially in some of the larger courts with very few recommendations in the pipeline, seems to be the genesis of this problem. The data placed before us, as drawn from the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), shows that five (5) High Courts alone are responsible for 54% of the pendency of over 57,51,312 cases, i.e., the High Courts of Allahabad, Punjab & Haryana, Madras, Bombay, and Rajasthan. The Madras High Court has among the highest arrears in the country of 5.8 lakh cases despite having fewer vacancies than most other High Courts (i.e., 7%).

This does not take away from the requirement of appointing ad hoc Judges but supports the view that even if the existing vacancies are few, a situation may arise requiring the expertise of experienced Judges to be appointed as ad hoc Judges.

A thought-provoking book titled The Morality of Law by Lon L. Fuller on moral philosophy insists on a distinction between “morality of aspiration” and “morality of duty”. From the view of the morality of aspiration, human conduct does not bear on mandatory rules but on conceptions of the “Good Life”, of “what beseems a human being functioning at his best to human capacities”. Because no law can compel a man to live up to the excellence of which he is capable. But for workable standards of judgment, the morality of duty lays down the basic rules without which an ordered society directed towards certain specific goals must fail of its mark.

Because the duty ties it very closely to what is “rationally discoverable” and “objective”, as contrasted with the morality of aspiration based on subjectivism. However, moralists may differ as to what range of conduct should fall within the respective spheres of duty and the morality of aspirations. “When we are passing a judgment of moral duty, it seems absurd to say that such a duty can in some way flow directly from knowledge of a situation of fact.” Due to the fact that before we conclude “that a duty ought to exist”, however well we may understand the facts, by the close connection between understanding a person's ideals, approval and disapproval, it is clear that duties are not purely matters of preference.

Does this mean that duties are rationally discoverable, and a matter of choice, even if not of “ineffable preference”? Presumably not, since when we pass a moral judgment of duty, it “ought” to exist. It is necessary to distinguish between the accepted morality of a social group and the personal morality of individuals. “Duty” may appear in all of these, but the satisfaction is very often a matter of degree varying from situation to situation.

The rule of a morality of duty is necessary for social living. The morality of aspiration provides a general idea of the perfection we ought to acquire. If we consider the whole range of moral issues, we may imagine a yardstick which begins at the bottom with the most obvious demands of social living and extends upward to the highest reaches of human aspirations. Somewhere along this scale an invisible pointer marks the dividing line where the pressure of duty leaves off and the challenge of excellence begins.

The whole field of moral argument is an undeclared war over the location of this pointer. Those we regard as being moralistic are always trying to inch the pointer upward so as to expand the area of duty, bludgeoning us into a belief that we are duty bound to embrace this pattern of human conduct, instead of making us realize a pattern of life they consider worthy of human nature.

Both lawmen and laymen often ask, ``What is the law applicable to a given set of facts?'' The answers to this question differ depending upon the specific jurisdiction to which the given set of facts is linked. Contrary to this, scholars and students of jurisprudence are likely to ask the general question, viz ``What is Law?''. This question on the philosophy and nature of law supposes that law is a distinctive social-political phenomenon with universal characteristics that can be perceived through philosophical analysis. In such a study, the assumption is that law possesses some universal characteristics.

An analysis of the philosophy of law can be done for different reasons. Apart from a purely intellectual interest in understanding this complex phenomenon known as law, scholars also study the same as a normative social practice that purports to guide human behaviour, giving rise to reasons for action. The primary challenge of the branch of scholarship known as jurisprudence is based on this ``normative, reason-giving aspect of law''. At the same time, we must understand that law is not the only normative realm in any given society. It is one of the many normative standards such as morality, religion, customs and usages, etiquette, self-regulatory standards within a family or corporation, etc. So, it is also essential that we study law on the differences and similarities of the same with these normative standards.

While discerning these connections and contradictions, legal theories often study the content of the norm apart from giving importance to the source. Generally, theoretical studies on the content such as natural lawyers emphasize values such as fairness, justice, liberty, etc., as qualifications for the norms to be called laws. They have argued that laws must be in tune with certain principles of inner morality, such as that laws be general, public, prospective, coherent, clear, stable, and practicable, which are indispensable to law-making. Whereas theories that give prominence to the sources of the norm, such as enactment/command by political institution/authority, do not always emphasize the content.

Such philosophical analysis of law comprises both explanatory and justificatory aspects. While the explanatory aspect consists of explaining how laws can give rise to reasons and what kinds of reasons are involved, one example of this would be Dworkin’s classification of law as concepts, principles and rules. The aspect of justification concerns whether people ought to comply with the law's demands. In other words, it is the attempt to explain the moral legitimacy of law and the subjects’ reasons for complying with it.

A biased die is marked with numbers 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 32 on its faces and the probability of getting a face with mark n is \(\frac1{n}\). If the die is thrown thrice, then the probability, that the sum of the numbers obtained is 48 is:

Let \((a_n)^∞_{n=0}\) be a sequence such that a₀=a₁=0 and \(a_{n+2}=2a_{n+1}−a_n+1\) for all n⩾0. Then, \(∑^∞_{n=2} \frac{a_n}{7^n}\) is equal to

Out of $60 \%$ female and $40 \%$ male candidates appearing in an exam, $60 \%$ candidates qualify it The number of females qualifying the exam is twice the number of males qualifying it A candidate is randomly chosen from the qualified candidates The probability, that the chosen candidate is a female, is :

The odd natural number a, such that the area of the region bounded by \(y = 1, y = 3, x = 0, x = y^a\) is \(\frac {364}{3}\), is equal to

Statement: A large number of people in ward X of the city are diagnosed to be suffering from a fatal malaria type.
Courses of Action: I. The city municipal authority should take immediate steps to carry out extensive fumigation in ward X.
II. The people in the area should be advised to take steps to avoid mosquito bites.

Statement: Severe drought is reported to have set in several parts of the country.
Courses of Action: I. Government should immediately make arrangement for providing financial assistance to those affected.
II. Food, water, and fodder should immediately be sent to all these areas to save the people and cattle.

Statements: 1. Some actors are singers.
2. All the singers are dancers.

Statements: I. All Actors are Musicians.
II. No Musician is a Singer.
III. Some Singers are Dancers.
IV. Some Dancers are Musicians.

Find the correctly spelt word.

The sum 1 + 2 ⋅ 3 + 3 ⋅ 3² + …. + 10 ⋅ 3⁹ is equal to

A man gains 10% by selling an article for a certain price. If he sells it at double the selling price, then the profit made is

The number of male employees in company 'D' is what percent less than the number of female employees in company 'C'?
\[ \begin{array}{|c|c|c|} \hline \text{Company} & \text{Total Number of Employees} & \text{Number of Female Employees} \\ \hline A & 5550 & 2410 \\ B & 3200 & 1860 \\ C & 2000 & 1600 \\ D & 2500 & 1220 \\ E & 4240 & 2600 \\ F & 3560 & 1240 \\ \hline \end{array} \]