In-Legal Buzz by Shivendra Singh

About Team Satyam What we began as a humble experiment has become in less than half a decade, a raging phenomenon. In CLAT 2010 itself, 10% of all law schoolites in all the NLUs put together were from this Phenomenon. Well, that’s 90% for the whole of India including all the other metros and a whooping full 10% for a Head Quarters at Mandir Marg. From there we have moved on to having 40% of the top 10 in CLAT 2012. Thus, it is of little surprise and extreme privilege then that the media labeled us the “Phenomenon”. We’ve have already started spreading the success across the nation so that the dream envisioned some time back can finally be fulfilled to the hilt. This phenomenon started from Lucknow and has now spread out to Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Dehradun, Ranchi, Patna, Kolkata, Siliguri and Guwahati. Information regarding all the products and courses – both classroom and correspondence, along with the contact details of all the centers, is available at the website: http://clatpossible.com

In-legal Buzz Latest offering from the house of Team Satyam is this magazine, which deals with each and every CLAT subject in great detail, along with nuances and interesting tit-bits of law and legal education. It contains featured law-related articles and analysis of each and every CLAT subject, along with regular columns such as Book/Film Review, Humorous jokes and anecdotes on law and lawyers and short and inspiring bios of prominent legal personalities. This magazine is meant for all law school aspirants and will surely be of great help to them.

Team In-legal Buzz Overall Mentor: Satyam S Sahai Editor-in-Chief: Surabhi Modi Sahai Product and Content Development: Atindriyo Chakraborty Cover Illustration and Layouts: Supriya Sahai Copy Editing: Shivalika Mondal Logistics: Tapas Acharya & Monidipa Bandyopadhyay Special acknowledgement: Mr. Senthil Kumar

CONTENT 01

EDITORIAL From the editor’s pen Surabhi Modi Sahai

FEATURED ARTICLE Social Media and Freedom of Speech: Are we looking at another duel? Atindriyo Chakrabarty

SUBJECT ANALYSIS Mathematics Khalid Khan General Knowledge and Current Affairs Sanjay Singh Logical Reasoning Atindriyo Chakrabarty English Abhilasha Swarup Legal Aptitude Atindriyo Chakrabarty

SPONSORED COLUMN Know This Law School Jindal Global Law school

REGULAR COLUMN Law and Cinema: The Judgment at Nuremberg – A Grand Celebration Atindriyo Chakrabarty Regular Column: Know the Greats Atindriyo Chakrabarty Regular Column: Legally Humored Atindriyo Chakrabarty iii

From the Editor’s Pen Well releasing the first magazine, I know it should be an overwhelming experience but I’m more excited than overwhelmed. When we embarked on this Law School Training journey, we started out with smaller goals of ‘smiling successful children’. It feels only yesterday when our journey began in 2004 in an 1800 sq ft institute training just 8 children. Well now we train thousands in across 10 cities. We try and innovate constantly keeping up with our high standards along and really it is the smile (light) at the end of the tunnel that keeps us going at CP. Now this success of hundreds of ‘smiling successful children’ has itself carved out our further goals; to reach out and impact as many students as we can. This and more was seen possible with the help of a medium that is enjoyable and eclectic. A magazine! Plus we all know ‘pen is mightier than the sword’ (tongue in cheek). And a magazine ensued. And even as I’m writing I feel very responsible and even more conscious of the task at hand. The group that this magazine reaches out to is smart yet vulnerable and the magazine aims at disseminating information and not unsolicited opinion, yet facilitating the children to form one of their own. The power house of write – ups and current events line up would also make this magazine very relevant for every student that is preparing for any kind of aptitude tests and also otherwise. Also we have purposely kept some sections under literary and entertainment to highlight and emphasize the need for reading and even visual arts. It develops the overall sensibilities of the students both in aesthetics and critical application. These things go a long way to help form opinion and communication skills for doing well in college. So whoever feels that fun is bad needs to redo his definitions. There is so much to be learnt and we at CP know how to exploit even the Fun quotient. Our Star Studded Sundays and Movie Days are evidence of the way even big students learn so much the fun way. Moreover Fun is never devoid of focus. You must remember fun just takes away the pressure of focus not focus itself so really working had never really translates into penance. It can be made wonderfully easy. So in keeping with the times and in order to sustain this kind of ambition it is really necessary to do the right things. So I hope everyone has a wonderful spring in the air and in your step and you thoroughly enjoy this first issue of In-legal BUZZ So long! Surabhi Modi Sahai Editor In-legal Buzz Fulbright Scholar, Mentor, Clat Possible

FEATURED ARTICLE

Social Media and Freedom of Speech: Are we looking at another duel? Civil Society, as most scholars agree, is a product of European Enlightenment. And history bears testimony to the fact that the state and the civil society has not seen eye to eye on several public matters, often those involving establishment and maintenance of law and order in society. One reason for this is that the idea and notion of “law and order” has not always been one and the same

for both the parties, viz., the civil society and the state. As many civil society activists have argued, since the demise of colonialism and imperialism and advent of democracy after the Second World War, the state, now the flag bearers of democracy, has often sought to impose its own ideas of law and order, citing “larger public benefit”, and has sought to establish a form of hegemony even

among the members of civil society, as a part of its endeavour to establish itself firmly within the ruling apparatus of the state. Thus, as many allege, the state often makes laws and lays down rules under the guise of protection of “public interest” so as to protect its own interest of maintenance of hegemony and thus democracy actually aids the state in maintaining the same, and in estab1

FEATURED ARTICLE

lishing a firm and deep-rooted ruling apparatus. Even then, protests were common and frequent, as reflected by the Leftist upheavals in Europe in the 1960s, the Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam War protests in America, the protest movements, both Socialist and anti-Reformist, in India, and, more recently, the Occupy Wall Street movement of America. Interestingly, in India, the judges have often sought to act as mediators in resolving such disputes between the civil society and the state through novel techniques such as introduction of Pubic Interest Litigations (PIL), by which any aware member of the civil society can litigate against the state using Article 32 of the Indian Constitution, and exercise and non-denial of basic and fundamental rights to the citizens, including the Right to Free Speech and Expression and the Right to Life as guaranteed by Articles 19 and 21, respectively, our Constitution. The introduction and mass-scale spread of the Internet has led to a further catalytic impact on the entire State versus Civil Society discourse. Information and awareness on several issues has started spreading fast and has become easily accessible to all the users of the internet. It goes without saying that most of the Internet users, owing to their socio-economic status, belong to the civil society and are in possession of enough material security for per2

sonal life and living to invest time and interest in matters impacting the social, economic, political and cultural rubric of their environment. With the rapid spread of Internet in the last 20 years, the civil society of Netizens has been direct participants in its process and has often sought to use the Internet to voice their opinions of several issues impacting them as a class. Such opinions and voices have often been against the state as well. Social Networking sites have allowed modern day Netizens a virtual platform where they can unite under a banner of common cause and clamour for social and political changes involving such common cause, and all from the comfort of their homes. All one needs to have so as to be a part of such banners and platforms is a computer with an internet connection and globalization, by virtue of its economic impact, has ensured ready availability of that. The number of Facebook pages that have mushroomed in after the recent Delhi rape incident dedicated towards lending solidarity and support for betterment of safety and security for women, for better enforcement of laws protecting women and endorsing changes in the existing laws dealing with offences against women bear testimony to the assertion that young and aware Netizens have developed as a strong force within the entire gamut of the Civil Society. Even on a global scale, the section of Civil Society that constitutes the majority of users of Social

Networking has made its presence felt quite prominently, as has been reflected by recent political upheavals in Egypt and Syria which has been collectively termed as the Arab Spring, in anti-War protests in Afghanistan and Iraq, in the Occupy movement and so on. Along with the social networking sites, wide outreach of social media blogs and vlogs among the young, affluent, urban and upwardly mobile Internet-friendly classes has ensured several channels through which opinions on issues can be voiced and discussions and discourses on the same can be carried forward. Internet activism has lately shown the trend of developing as a concept of virtual development of solidarity and counter-hegemony against the state and has also provided a much needed support system to real-life socio-political activism which seeks to usher in positive, worthwhile and sustainable changes in the society, economy and polity. The state, on the other hand, has also woken up to the perceived â&#x20AC;&#x153;threatâ&#x20AC;? against its own hegemony of the democratic ruling apparatus and has, consequently, started pondering over ways and means to curb this wide lassitude of voice provided to the citizens who are active on the internet. Naturally, even the Netizens have not taken such moves to curb their freedom of speech and expression very kindly and have been vociferous about upholding such rights which are absolute preconditions of involvement in internet

FEATURED ARTICLE

activism. Paradoxically enough, the Internet savvy citizens have once again voiced such opinions against curbing of their rights to free speech and expression through the platforms provided by the internet itself, i.e., through Social Networks, blogs, vlogs and other virtual social media.

to deceive or to mislead the addressee or recipient about the origin of such messages. Shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years

b)any information which he knows to be false, but for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred or ill will, persistently by making use of such computer resource or a communication device,

A general reading of the words of the Section makes it clear that it has been couched in broad and open-ended terms and it empowers the State to punish anyone who disseminates any information or expresses any thought which is deemed to be “grossly offensive and has menacing character”. Sadly, the terms “grossly offensive” and “menacing” has not been defined anywhere in the Act or in any other law of the land. This vests wide and discretionary power on police authorities and the state and enables them to initiate

and with fine.” Now, Part II of Schedule I of the Criminal Procedure One such law introduced by the Indian state to curb internet activism Code mentions that any offence which has not been which it perceives harmful and detdealt with in the Indian Perimental to it is Section 66A of the Information Technology Act. Let us nal Code and which is punishable with imprisonment look at what the section says. for three years and upwards is a cognizable offence, “ANY PERSON WHO meaning one in which the SENDS, BY MEANS OF A police can arrest the alleged COMPUTER RESOURCE wrong-doer without any OR warrant or any other order A COMMUNICATION from the relevant court/s DEVICE— and start investigating the a)any information that is crime. Thus, the offence ungrossly offensive or has men- der Section 66A is a cognizaacing character; or ble offence.

c)any electronic mail or electronic mail message for the purpose of causing annoyance or inconvenience or

criminal proceedings against the alleged wrongdoer, i.e., the individual who posts anything on any Social Networking site which the complainant things to be of grossly offensive and menacing nature.

Section 66A of the Information Technology Act is a penal law which is restrictive of an individual’s right to free speech and expression which is a Fundamental Right guaranteed by Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. Article 19(2) allows the state to impose “reasonable restrictions” on such freedom “in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence”. While there can be no denying the fact that Section 66A of IT Act imposes such restrictions on similar grounds, the reasonability of the restrictions, or rather the lack of it, is what peeves a large section of civil society Netizens. The reasonability becomes a vital issue in this context because this section has been couched in broad terms and thus vests wide and discretionary powers on the police to act against any alleged offender without a court warrant, given that it has been made 3

FEATURED ARTICLE

a cognizable offence by virtue of the prescribed penalty. Thus, the state gets immense power at its disposal to curb the freedom of modern day internet users to voice their opinions on, and express their emotions against, several social and political issues. This law was introduced by virtue of an Amendment to the IT Act in 2008. Hardly five years have passed and it has claimed several victims – people against whom action had been initiated by the State for voicing their opinions against the state. By virtue of wide spread percolation of print, television and internet media, we are all aware of the plight of Calcutta based Professor Ambikesh Mahapatra, Mumbai based cartoonist Aseem Trivedi and two Mumbai based girls, who were all nabbed under this Section for offences of sharing certain materials on Facebook, which, as almost every Netizen agrees, were neither grossly offensive nor menacing. History shows that the Indian state and ruling polity has never taken criticism directed against it too kindly and has often sought to curtail and choke dissenting voices. That this Section adds yet another potent weapon in the burgeoning arsenal which the state has in its disposal to curb voices of dissent, dissatisfaction and protest is perhaps not too much of a far-fetched assumption. The right to protest against the state and criticise its actions in a democratic manner is a vital democratic right and if 4

sufficient caution is not taken to preserve these rights, the balance of power gets tilted in favour of those at the helm of the state machinery, thereby tolling the death-knell of democracy. In short, this Section makes an offence which involves Freedom of Speech and Expression and imposes restrictions on the same. Such restrictions are needed for the functioning of the State. However, such restrictions, as the Constitution clearly mentions, need to be reasonable. The restriction imposed by virtue of Section 66A, by virtue of its wordings, seems to breach the strict borders of reasonability and confers wide and discretionary powers to the State, thus opening the doors for arbitrariness to crawl in. Such wide amplitude enables the state to be a judge in its own cause as far as criticisms directed against the state are concerned. Natural law forbids any party, be it a state or an individual, to judge its own cause. Moreover, making an offence which is restrictive of the citizens’ right to free speech a cognizable one sets a bad precedence for the state and takes away the guarantee that it will not resort to similar measures and make similar restrictive offences cognizable in future. Excessive rigidity on matters involving the citizens’ sacrosanct democratic and Constitutional right to free speech and expression takes away much vitality in open discourse, discussion and dissemination of ideas and opinions, and is thus unhealthy for any

democracy. Unfortunately, Section 66A of the IT Act, as it stands today, shows such excessive rigidity and strictness. Dissatisfaction with the Section has been voiced by several aware and concerned Netizens and clamours to either modify it or repeal it altogether have also been gaining in momentum in the last few months, especially since the three unsavoury episodes mentioned above caught the attention of popular media. However, as the text of the Section quoted above suggest, it provides internet users with a degree of protection against several cyber-crimes such as spams, hate-mails directed against individuals and or specific social, religious, ethnic, linguistic, political and ideological groups and classes. Repealing the Section altogether would render Internet users defenseless against all these threats and misdoings. Maybe an Amendment which will bring down the imprisonment term to less than three years, thereby making the offence a non-cognizable one, will suit the purpose of protecting the citizens against any unreasonable curtailment of freedom of speech and expression projected on the Internet. Another possible way out can be by putting our faith on the judges of our country. In the past, especially since the advent of judicial activism as reflected by the introduction of public interest litigations in the 1980s by the Honorable

Supreme Court Judges, they have been instrumental in effecting social development through pro-active measures such as seeking to rectify laws which militate against the ethos of our Constitution or by seeking to ensure the application of existing welfare laws. A PIL has been filed by a 21 year old law aspirant, Shreya Singhal, challenging the Constitutional validity of Section 66A of the IT Act and this PIL also seeks to make the offence mentioned in the Section a non-cognizable one so that the police are prevented from working under pressure from their political superiors in this regard. The evil nexus between individuals and groups with sinister political motives and the police is a sad reality of our country, as reflected by the fact that little progress has been made with regards to the Ambikesh Mahapatra case of Calcutta where Mr. Mahapatra, a chemistry professor of Jadavpur University, Calcutta, was arrested under this section for

FEATURED ARTICLE

posting a caricature of the Chief Minister of West Bengal and the erstwhile Railway Minister of India belonging to Trinamool Congress, and was allegedly harassed by several miscreants purportedly belonging to the ruling party of West Bengal. As this example clearly points out, this Section, by virtue of its vague wording and the wide ambit of power it confers upon the police, can be misused by the ruling political groups to curtail criticism directed against it over the internet and maintain hegemony to the detriment of democracy. In this context, and with regards to the PIL filed, the judiciary needs to play a proactive role in laying down a fixed test involving a set of objective parameters, taking all the necessary issues in consideration, construe the terms of the Section in a narrow manner so as to cut down on the amplitude of power it vests on the state and indulge in a sustainable and

meaningful discourse on this issue so as to even-out the balance of power, which is now tilted heavily towards the state by virtue of this Section and its import and consequences. From an objective and academic perspective, the current scenario involving Section 66A of the IT Act and Article 19(2) of the Constitution presents an interesting opportunity to study the Hegelian and Gramscian discourse on hegemony and power-play involving the state on one hand and the urban, ‘enlightened’ socio-economic elites with a voice of their own on the other and provides us with a chance to scrutinise the situation and indulge in vital democratic discourse on the theme of state, hegemony and censorship. Atindriyo Chakrabarty Mentor, Clat Possible

SUBJECT ANALYSIS

Mathematics A nightmare for many and a love-affair for the rest, Mathematics is perhaps one of the most intriguing subjects in human history. As for CLAT, the Mathematics section carries 20 marks and contains elementary questions on basic understanding and aptitude for the subject. Thus there is nothing to panic. The learning from the story of Tortoise & Rabbit has just changed. Gone are the days when the “slow and the steady” tortoise used to win the race, now it’s just the “fast and the furious” rabbit who grab the first available opportunity and wins the race, the race for admission into the coveted schools of India & abroad by cracking competitive examinations like CAT, CLAT, JEE etc. But the rabbit (you) aren’t supposed be just ‘fast and furious’ but more importantly fast & furious & accurate! Don’t forget the neagative marking system introduced in the current year In this article and subsequent ones, I would like to share with you a trick & strategy that will help you get rid of boredom involved in doing something that does not interest you at all. In an examination like CLAT, which demands you to solve 200 questions in 120 minutes, which includes 20 maths questions for which you’re not expected to utilize more than 12-15 minutes, you need to be really fast & accurate. For most of CLAT aspirants coming from commerce, arts & humanities background, mathematics section of CLAT is like the Vinci Code that cannot be cracked. An analysis of previous year CLAT papers paints an entirely different picture. It is revealed that mathematics section is the easiest of all the section and a tête à tête with toppers from CLATPOSSIBLE further confirms the analysis. 6

One’s ability to solve problem in mathematics largely depends on “WHAT TO LOOK FOR”. Problems in CLAT mostly requires established procedures and knowing HOW, WHEN & WHERE to apply them. The ability to identify the relevant procedure depends on one’s familiarity with the problem situation and ability to gather relevant information and the key to develop these important traits lays in age old mantra “Abhyaas Abhyaas Abhyaas _______” But the idea of regular practice is monotonous and one needs to enjoy while solving CLAT level mathematics. Here is how I suggest a trick to improve your calculation speed.

THE NUMBER GAME IMPROVE YOUR CALCUALATION SPEED This method is credited to one of my teacher’s in school who would tell us to use the number plates of the vehicles to increase our calculation speed. Here is how it is done. 1. Select a vehicle number say UP 32 DX 7459 2. Focus on the last four digit of the number i.e. 7459 3. Apply any arithmetical operation on first two digit i.e. 7x4=28 and 5x9=14, you can use addition or subtraction as well. 4. Now using the two results to try to get a number of your choice by using any of the four basic arithmetical operations say if you want 0 then you can get it by 28-2x14=0. One can also set any other number as target number 5. In the end always try multiplying all the four digits of the number i.e. 7x4x5x9=1260 Regular practice of this trick will help you perform basic

SUBJECT ANALYSIS

© Clat Possible. All rights Reserved calculation required in CLAT at a lighting fast speed and help you save precious time. FINDING SQUARE ROOTS The square root of a given number is a number which when multiplied to it-self gives the given number. We often encounter finding square roots in questions related to Profit & Loss, Simple & Compound Interest etc. Our aim is to find the square root of a given number accurately up to two places of decimals. Below I describe a simple method credited to my teacher in school. Consider that we have to find square root of 19, the nearest square number before 19 is 16 whose square root is 4 then the required square root is Let us consider 53, the nearest square root is 7 and when 53 is divided by 7 we get 7.55, then we add 7.55 + 7 to get 14.55 and then we divide 14.55 by 2 to get 7.275 which is very close to the required square root. This method always produced an answer that is little higher than the exact answer. In case of 19 the exact answer is 4.35. So always remember to factor our factor out the slightly high value. If the options given in the question are very close then I recommend exact method of finding square root. THE STRATEGY: HOW TO GO ABOUT IT A thorough analysis of past years CLAT paper reveals that major chunk of the question in Mathematics section was from chapters of Arithmetic like Time Speed & Distance, Ratio Proportion & Variation, Profit & Loss, Simple & Compound Interest, Work & Time, and Pipe & Cistern etc. With less than two months remaining in CLAT, I would suggest that you have a well devised Plan of Action. The followings are the suggested steps: a. Analyze past five year papers and make a note of number of questions from different areas of mathematics as mentioned above. b. Perform an analysis as to which section constitute at least 80% of the questions asked in mathematics section

c. Consider whether or not these sections are your stronghold in mathematics. d. If a particular area as found in (b) is a stronghold then practice at least 10 questions from this area. e. If a particular area as found out in step (b) is not a strong hold then i. Go through the concepts ii. Attempt the basic questions that helps you build on the required concepts iii. Practice 20 questions of the area daily iv. Discuss your doubts with TS mentors This approach of maintaining on your strengths & working on your weakness will not take more than two hours daily and will not affect your preparation for other sections of CLAT but here I would like to add word of caution that do not spend time on practicing Maths for the sake of practicing-remember you need to enjoy it then only it will add to your performance. Remember, you need to study hard but more importantly you need to study smart. Khalid Khan Mentor, Clat Possible

General Knowledge & Current Affairs GK & Current Affairs, a common feature for most competitive examinations across the globe, carries 50 marks and is thus a rather important section. This part is intended to test how much the candidate is abreast of recent developments in the national and global scenario, and on her general knowledge. National/ Appointment THE CRIMINAL LAW (AMENDMENT) ORDINANCE, 2013 An Ordinance further to amend the Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. 7

SUBJECT ANALYSIS WHEREAS a Bill further to amend the Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 was introduced in the House of the People and referred to the Department related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs for examination and report which is pending; AND WHEREAS Parliament is not in session and the President is satisfied that circumstances exist which render it necessary for him to take immediate action to give effect to the provisions of the said Bill with certain modifications. Some important provisions: Section 326A.(Acid attack) :Whoever causes permanent or partial damage by throwing acid on a person shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which shall not be less than ten years but which may extend to imprisonment for life. Section 354A.(Sexual harassment): The following acts or behaviour shall constitute the offence of sexual harassment–– (i) physical contact and advances involving un welcome and explicit sexual overtures; or (ii) a demand or request for sexual favours; or (iii) making sexually coloured remarks; or (iv) forcibly showing pornography; or (v) any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature Section 354B.(Disrobing): Whoever assaults or uses criminal force to any woman with the intention of disrobing or compelling her to be naked in any public place, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which shall not be less than three years Section 354C. (Voyeurism): Whoever watches, or captures the image of, a woman engaging in a private act having the expectation of not being observed shall be punished on first conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which shall not be less than one year, but which may extend to three years. Section 354D. (Stalking): Whoever follows a person and 8

© Clat Possible. All rights Reserved contacts, or attempts to contact such person to foster personal interaction repeatedly, despite a clear indication of disinterest by such person, or whoever monitors the use by a person of the internet, email or any other form of electronic communication, or watches or spies on a person in a manner that results in a fear of violence or serious alarm or distress in the mind of such person, or interferes with the mental peace of such person, commits the offence of stalking. Section 376A: Whoever, commits an offence punishable section 376 (rape) and in the course of such commission inflicts an injury which causes the death of the person or causes the person to be in a persistent vegetative state, shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than twenty years, but which may extend to imprisonment for life, which shall mean the remainder of that person’s natural life, or with death. Conclusion: Besides the death sentence in rare cases, the ordinance enhances punishment for other crimes like stalking, voyeurism, acid attacks, indecent gestures or words and inappropriate touch. But, in cherry picking from the report of the Justice Verma panel, the government appears to have dumped the hard parts and held up a diluted version as its core. The committee’s recommendations relating to marital rape, police reform, and prosecution of security personnel charged with sexual assault under ordinary criminal law, have all been blanked out. On some issues, like the imposition of the death penalty, the ordinance does exactly the opposite of what the report recommended. The ordinance would have a life of six months unless Parliament approves a bill or bills incorporating the amendments effected to the IPC, the Cr.PC and the Evidence Act. Justice Verma Committee Report Important Conclusions: 1. The existing laws, if faithfully and efficiently implemented by credible law enforcement agencies, are sufficient to maintain law and order and to protect the safety and dignity of the

© Clat Possible. All rights Reserved people, particularly women, and to punish any offenders who commit any crime. This is not to say that the necessary improvements in the law, keeping in mind modern times, should not be enacted at the earliest. 2. Speedy justice is not merely an aspect of the right to life with dignity, but is essential for efficacy of the law and its desired impact, as well as for prevention of its violation. 3. Police reforms that are recommended and directed for the autonomy and better quality of the police force must be urgently implemented for the preservation of the rule of law, which is a basic feature of our Constitution230. 4. Law enforcement agencies must be insulated from any political or other extraneous influence, which impedes their performance. Law enforce ment agencies must not become tools at the hands of political masters. 5. The brutalities of the armed forces faced by residents in the border areas have led to a deep disenchantment, and the lack of mainstreaming of such persons into civil society. Serious allegations of persistent sexual assault on the women in such areas and conflict areas are causing more alienation. 6. Unless the promises made at the birth of the nation are fulfilled, the India that our founding fathers dreamt of will never become a reality. Recent events indicate that the patience of the disillusioned youth is running out. Important Recommendations: 1. All limbs of the State - the executive, the legislature as well as the judiciary – must respect women’s rights and must treat them in a non-discriminatory manner. 2. Every complaint of rape must be registered by the police and civil society should perform its duty to report any case of rape coming to its knowledge. 3. We have also taken into account offences of eve teasing, voyeurism, stalking as well as sexual

SUBJECT ANALYSIS assault and unsolicited sexual contact. 4. A special procedure for protecting persons with disabilities from rape, and requisite procedures for access to justice for such persons is also an urgent need. 5. The protocols for medical examination of victims of sexual assault have also been suggested. Such protocol- based, professional medical examination is imperative for uniform practice and implementation. 6. The insensitivity of the police to deal with rape victims is well known. As such, all existing appointments need to be reviewed to ensure that the police force has the requisite moral vision. 7. Police force - their accountability is only to the law and to none else in the discharge of their duty. Dereliction of this duty has to be punished according to the service rules and applicable law. 8. Juvenile homes in the country, i.e. child homes, and observation homes, are not being run in a manner consistent with the spirit of the Juvenile Justice Act. 9. It is time for the judiciary to step in to discharge the constitutional mandate of enforcing fundamental rights and implementation of the rule of law.For the safety and physical security of children, women, persons with disabilities, inmates of mental homes and widows, monitoring by the judiciary is necessary. The immediate and ultimate guardianship of such persons has to be with the court, founded on the principle of parens patriae. 10.To augment the police force, there is a need to develop community policing by involving the local gentry, which would also motivate them to perform their duty as citizens. Respectable persons in each locality could also be appointed Special Executive Magistrates under Section 21, Cr.P.C. and invested with powers to deal with the traffic offences and other minor offences. In addition, to assisting the maintenance of law and order in the locality, their presence would inspire greater confidence of safety in the locality. 9

SUBJECT ANALYSIS 11.Street lighting everywhere would provide more safety since dark areas are more prone to facilitate crimes. There is great wisdom in the words of the American Judge Louis Brandeis, that “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectant; electric light the most efficient policeman”. 12.Street vending should be encouraged to make the bus stops and footpaths safe for communities and pedestrians, in addition to providing street food for the common man. 13.We recommend the creation of a new constitutional authority akin to the Comptroller and Auditor General for education, non- discrimination, in respect of women and children. 14.Reforms in respect of the political establishment: (a) Reforms are needed in the Representation of People Act, 1951 to deal with criminalisation of politics and to ensure true representation of people by elimination of those with criminal antecedents. This is also essential to avoid any conflict in the discharge of their legislative functions. (b) We also suggest that, in the event cognizance has been taken by a magistrate of an offence mentioned in Section 8(1) of the Representation of People Act, 1951, the candidate ought to be disqualified from participating in the electoral process. (c) We further suggest that Section 8(1) of the Representation of People Act, 1951 be amended and should include all heinous offences as suggested. (d) If all those in Parliament and State Legislatures, who have any criminal case pending against them in respect of heinous offences, vacate their seats as a mark of respect to Parliament and to the Constitution (e) It is the least to expect that political parties do not nominate any candidates for election who have any criminal antecedents. Failure to do so is likely to set in motion social urges of 10

© Clat Possible. All rights Reserved inestimable dimensions. 15.The recommendations made in this report, unless urgently implemented, will end the exercise conducted by the Committee in futility. Reservation in Promotion The Supreme Court in the matter of M. Nagaraj case, while upholding validity of the Constitution amendments regarding reservation in promotion to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, has laid down certain pre-requisite conditions for providing reservation in promotion to SCs and STs, namely the State has to see about inadequacy of representation, backwardness of the class and efficiency of administration. To overcome these pre-requisite conditions, the Government proposed to introduce a bill to amend the Constitution. Opinion of the Attorney General of India was sought on the proposed bill and he had not opined that the Bill on the Constitutional amendment for reservation of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes in promotion in the Government jobs was erroneous. The Bill aims to amend Article 16(4A) so as to continue with existing provisions of reservation in promotion to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, without any impediment.

ÂŠ Clat Possible. All rights Reserved 1. UPSC Chairman 2. Attorney General 3. Solicitor General 4. Controller and Auditor General of India (CAG) 5. 19th Law Commission Chairman 6. 20th Law Commission Chairman 7. Chairman, National Human Rights Commission 8. Chairman, National Commission for Backward Class 9. Chairman, National Commission for Scheduled Caste 10. Chairman, National Commission for Scheduled Tribes 11. Chairman, National Commission for Minorities 12. Chairman, National Commission for Women 13. Chairman, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board 14. Chairman, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) 15. President, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) 16. Chairman, Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) 17. Chairman, Secureities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) 18. President, All India Football Federation 19. Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI)

DP Agarwal Goolam E. Vahanvati Mohan Parasaran Vinod Rai Justice PV Reddy Justice DK Jain

KG Balakrishnan

Justice MN Rao

PL Punia

Dr. Rameshwar Oraon Wajhat Habibullah Mamta Sharma SS Bajaj

Poonam Kishore Saxena

Adi Godrej

Sushil Muhnot

UK Sinha Praful Patel D Subbarao

SUBJECT ANALYSIS 20. Director, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Ranjit Sinha 21. Director, Central Reserve Police Force Pranay Sahay 22. Chief Justice of India Justice Altamas Kabir 23. National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon 24. President, Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) Naina Lal Kidwai 25. Chairman, Space Commission and ISRO K Radhakrishnan 26. Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath 27. Election Commissioner 1 HS Bralnma 28. Election Commissioner 2 Syed Nazim Ahmed Zaidi 29. Central Vigilance Commissioner Pradeep Kumar 30. Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra 31. Chairman, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) N Srinivasan 32. Chairman, Child Film Society of India (CFSI) Amol Gupte 33. Director General, National Investigation Agency (NIA) SC Sinha 34. Director, Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) Shekhar Basu 35. Chairman, 13th Finance Commission Vijay Kelkar 36. Chairman, 14th Finance Commission YV Reddy 37. Director, Intelligence Bureau (IB) Syed Asif Tbrahim 38. Chairman, University 11

SUBJECT ANALYSIS Grants Commission (UGC) Ved Prakash 39. Economic Advisor to PM C Rangrajan 40. Chief Economic Advisor Raghuram Rajan 41. Chairman, Central Board of Film Certification Leela Samson 42. Chairman, National Commission on Farmers (NCF) MS Swaminathan 43. Chairman, Planning Commission Manmohan Singh 44. Leader of Opposition, Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj 45. Leader of Opposition, Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley 46. Speaker of Lok Sabha Meira Kumar 47. Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia 48. Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha Kariya Munda 49. Deputy Speaker of Rajya Sabha Prof. PJ Kurien 50. Chairman, Rajya Sabha Hamid Ansari 51. Director, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) Alok Joshi 52. Chief, Indian Navy Admiral DK Joshi 53. Chief, Indian Army General Bikram Singh 54. Chief of Staff Committee Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne 55. MD and CEO of National Stock Exchange (NSE) Chitra Ramakrishna 56. MD and CEO of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Ashish Kumar Chauhan 57. Chairman, Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) VK Saraswat

ÂŠ Clat Possible. All rights Reserved 1. Secretary General, SAARC Mohammad Ahmad Saleem 2. Secretary General, United Natioanl Organisation (UNO) Ban Ki Moon 3. Director General, UNESCO Irina Bokova 4. Executive Director, UNICEF Anthony Lake 5. Director General, WHO Dr. Margaret Chan 6. President, International Court of Justice (ICJ) Judge Peter Tomka 7. Director General, International Labor Organization (ILO) Guy Ryder 8. Managing Director, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Ms. Christine Lagarde 9. President, World Bank Dr. Jim Yong Kim 10. Chief Economist, World Bank Kaushik Basu 11. Director General, World Trade Organisation (WTO) Pascal Lamy 12. President, Asian Development Bank (ADB) Haruhiko Kuroda 13. President, International Olympic Committee (IOC) Jacques Rogge 14. President, FIFA Sepp Blatter 15. President, International Cricket Council (ICC) Alan Isaac 16. Director General, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano 17. Secretary General, OPEC HE Abdalla Salem El- Badri 18. Secretary General, NATO Anders Fogh Ramussen 19. Secretary General, INTERPOL Ronald Noble

SUBJECT ANALYSIS

20. Chief, African Union Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma 21. Administrator, NASA Charles F. Bolden 22. Secretary General, Commonwealth Kamlesh Sharma 23. Chairman, UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Lara Dupee Laisere 24. Secretary General, ASEAN Dr. Surin Pitsuwan 25. President, International Criminal Court (ICC) Song Sang Hyun 26. Judge, Internationl Court of Justice (ICJ) Justice Dalveer Bhandari 27. Chairman of Federal Reserve, Central Bank of United States Ben Bernanke 28. Director General, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) Rolf Dieter Heuer 29. President, European Central Bank Mario Draghi 30. Secretary General, Amnesty International Salil Shetty Sanjay Singh Mentor, Clat Possible

Logical Reasoning

This portion carries 40 marks and is pretty important. Here, the candidate’s ability to solve puzzles through application of logic and analysis is focused upon. Solving Logical Reasoning questions is like a mental exercise. Thus, as it is with all exercises, the more you work out, the better you get. Practicing solving a lot of questions, on this topic is the only sure-shot way of getting used to such problems. The CLAT aspirant can find

questions on this from standard Logical Reasoning books such as those by R.S Agarwal or the one by MK Pandey, along with similar questions from sample CLAT papers, mock CLAT papers and from the modules given by prominent coaching institutes such as Clat Possible. Speed of the entire process reading the problem, understanding it, thinking on the solution and finally arriving at the correct answer – either through affirmation of the correct answer among the choices given or through negation of the incorrect ones among them – is what matters most for questions on this topic and that can be increased through more and more practice. Let us look at five sample questions on this topic. The correct answers are highlighted. It’s for you to find out why. 1) X is the grandson of Y’s grandmother’s only son. X is Y’s____ (a) Son (b) Nephew (c) Brother (d) Cannot be determined 2) Assertions: All chairs are tables. All tables are books. All books are clocks. No clock is door-knob. Conclusions: I. All clocks are tables. II. Some chairs are door-knobs. III. No chair is door-knob. (a) Only I (b) Only II (c) Only III (d) Either II or III

SUBJECT ANALYSIS

3) Ralph ranks twelfth in a class of forty six. What will be her rank from the last? (a) 33 (b) 35 (c) 37 (d) 34 4) 2, 1, (1/2), (1/4), ? (a) (1/3) (b) (1/8) (c) (2/8) (d) (1/16) 5) CMM, EOO, GQQ, _____, KUU (a) GRR (b) GSS (c) ISS (d) ITT More such examples can be found under the Logical Reasoning Section of the solved CLAT 2012 Question Paper given on the website of Clat Possible at the following link: http://clatpossible.com/free.php. Registration is free.

Is it modus Vivendi or modus operandi ....or is it some other mode...like a la mode or a la carte...are we allied or alienated , is something opulent or ornate or is it kitschy? The CLAT paper has suddenly pitch-forked me into this vortex of strange sounding and more so strangely spelt words. Why is it that an exam that is used for admissions into the top Indian law schools is testing you on words? Is it because all hot-shot lawyers speaking for work or pleasure purposely bombard big words to aggrandize their persona? Or is it really required in the courtrooms and in the legal world? Something like, “Your most dignified Lordship, the words that droppeth from your lips are manna dew and I soak into them, but please balk and ponder at thy lucid judgment before thou bestoweth it on my most aggrieved client!” Really? Are we in for this? Whatever the reason, any aspirant for CLAT needs to stop being indolent and needs to bring out his inner enfant terrible and become a vocabulary aficionado all it meant was add spunk to your learning and appreciate words even though you may not be required to speak in a manner thus.

Atindriyo Chakrabarty

English

Another very important section is English. It contains a lot of topics including vocabulary, reading comprehension, grammar, phrasal verbs, idioms etc. This portion contains 40 marks and the CLAT aspirants are expected to have a good command over English and understanding of the language. GRANDILOQUENT, ELOQUENT, POMPOUS OR BOMBASTIC ? LESSONS FROM A VOCAB MANIAC 14

Any connoisseur of vocabulary would tell you that real chutzpah or style comes with an in depth knowledge of words and not with an affectation of learning vocabulary. The difference between annual and annal, amiable and amicable, retrospect and introspect can make all the difference to a law-school aspirant. So let’s take a look at the inner world of vocabulary and understand how to build a base in the vocab-land just like the bourgeoisie made in France with the revolutionary coup. Why do we need to learn new words? DIFFERENT WORDS, DIFFERENT COLORS: As lawyers you would not only be writing briefs, settling matters, filing writs but you will also be arguing cases. Arguing means talking and if you do not have a strong

© Clat Possible. All rights Reserved knowledge of words you would, inter alia, find it difficult to express things. A comme ci comme ca lawyer would be happy mentioning that the witness was happy, very happy, not so happy or extremely happy. But not you, you would want to say happy, joyous, ecstatic, pleased, pleasured, or for that matter thrilled on various different occasions. Or let us say you are angry then you may be belligerent or bellicose or you may want to rebuke, chide, castigate or remonstrate someone and not just scold the offending party. If you cracked CLAT then depending on the NLU you get, you could be happy, exhilarated, enraptured or ecstatic. I repeat that vocabulary is important. TOO MANY WORDS, THE BEST ONE: Anyone who has too many choices knows how difficult it is to select the right wine for you, only a sommelier would know the best one. For example in fashion, it is important for us to know the correct word for what we want to say. A smell can be an odour, an aroma, a fragrance or a stink! The pot purri was used to get rid of foul odours in the past but now it is used to keep rooms fragrant. If you did not know what an odour is and/or a fragrance how you would know what is a pot purri! What other words could there be for odour? The words such as malodorous or noxious bring to the nose or the mind here, the smell of rotten eggs which can be in turn described as foul smelling or fetid. A lady could be haughty or imperious or patronizing and each of these would give us a negative image of the lady in question. Or so could a man be. But a man is rarely described as an epitome of pulchritude, or a woman as dapper CONNOTE VS. DENOTE: The denotation is the formal or literal meaning of a word or sentence while the connotation is the emotion that the word or world wants us to understand from it. The emotion evoked by the word is the connotation and it is required for the reader to be able to understand both the denotation and the connotation of the word. For example, “A cylindrical animal that slithers along the ground” Is the literal meaning of the word snake while the connotation of snake is a horrible, slimy, fearful animal. Just the

SUBJECT ANALYSIS mention of the word elicits strong dislike and at times hatred for the animal. Connotation and denotation work together to construct meaning and allow a reader to understand the nuances of meaning--the slight differences--that create the impact of writing. For example, is Aanya skinny, thin, or slender? All three words have similar denotative qualities, but if you asked Aanya, no doubt she’d prefer to be called slender rather than skinny. ONE WORD, NOT ENOUGH: Sometimes a single word does not present the exact idea you have in mind. One way to clarify what you are thinking is to use more than one word--here again we touch on synonyms that are approximate in meaning--to describe the idea. Each time the writer refers to the idea or thing with a different word, your conception of it gets more specific and clearer. Aanya is obstreperous. Is she also recalcitrant or implacable when something goes wrong? At least she doesn’t grow acrimonious when we disagree. HOW MANY ARE ENOUGH: Where does one draw the line while learning or working on vocabulary? Most aspirants worry about this as there is no clear line about how many words one should learn. Generally an adult knows about 3000-4000 words and uses around 70% of these. So if you added even a thousand words to your vocabulary, there would be a positive resurgence in your usage of words. You could even become a rhetorician if you tried a little harder. And even if you did not become a rhetorician you would at least be able to become eloquent and even crack your exam, faster and quicker. Well now that I have convinced you that improving vocabulary is important, let’s talk about how to actually kick start the learning process or the nitty-gritty of learning. Can learning of vocabulary be through the rote-learning method as is practiced by the hoi-polloi or will you have to change the paradigm and use heuristics, as the Greeks would say, as would be done by a maverick? I would say that prima facie, rote learning appears to be better for the beginner as one does not even know the words, let alone the meanings and the connotations of these words. For instance, how many of you knew 15

SUBJECT ANALYSIS the meanings of prima facie (on the face of it) or inter alia (among other things)? Yet it is not a long term solution and a series of processes have to be activated simultaneously. ACTIVATE IT: Simple rote memorization is pretty passive on the learning scale. Learning is faster and more effective if you engage in active learning techniques--doing something with the words while learning them which are what the pundits would tell you. Remember that active learning does not need to be physically active. Mentally active learning that makes use of creativity and humor can be a powerful learning method. FLASH CARDS: Create a set of flash cards with the word on one side and the definition on the other. Study each word and its definition until you know the word well. Keep studying after you know the word in order to build fluency (or automaticity)--that is, the ability to define the word instantly. Next, study the flash cards backwards. That is, look at the definition and name the word defined. Once again, continue to study until you reach fluency. This will remove the ambiguities and any superficial connects.

© Clat Possible. All rights Reserved in order to build familiarity and comfort with words. Word Antakshari is a game that every one of us has played in our childhood and the word version just increases the fun. Scrabble, Boggle and Hangman all are popular games and have many online avatars also, so you can play them on your laptops or mobiles. You can think of many other games along the way. RAM SAYS: this is my version of a popular word game where each person makes a statement that Ram would say to him. You simply include the word’s definition in the statement and the word itself as the adverb. Here are some examples: “Now that we’re here let’s look around,” Ram said circumspectly. “This machine runs by itself,” said Ram automatically. “I don’t believe that,” sad Ram incredulously. “This decision is fair to you both,” said Ram equitably. “I’m in no shape at all,” said Ram amorphously. “He acts like a know-it-all,” Ram said omnisciently.

WORDS IN CONTEXT: After you know the meaning of the words, you now want to be able to use them correctly in your writing and speaking. This is often more challenging than it seems which is why thoughtless users of a thesaurus often go so wrong. “He was dead drunk and “He was deceased inebriated” just are not synonymous expressions no matter what the thesaurus seems to say. WORDS IN SENTENCE: Now that you know the dictionary meaning of the words and have studied how they are actually used through several examples, write sentences using the words. Keep the example sentences in mind as you write, paying attention to the context of usage. PLAY GAMES: you can play many games using words 16

“I’m broke again,” Ram said impecuniously. STORYTIME: Many a time a word has a personal connection with us and it becomes easy for us to remember it. For example, the word green thumb is used for a person who is good at growing plants and black thumb for someone who is a plant murderer. Or for that matter that an emollient is something that molly uses to soften her skin. Or that an iconoclast is someone who will last like an icon. Or that brouhaha has nothing to do with a brew and everything to do with a Ha!Ha! or a chaos. Or that a maverick is a Mauve colored rick or an unusual man. Or that a memento mori will be given in “meri” memory. At times a word will say something to you, and you can use it to learn or remember the meanings. Who does now remember BODMAS?

SUBJECT ANALYSIS

THE BOTTOM OF THE TREE, ANYONE: the roots of a plant are the base on which the plant thrives, the word roots are almost similar. Words that have common roots are going to have something in common and that is of great help to the students. If we look at the words projectile, injection, dejected, rejection, eject , and we know that the root ject means to throw then does it not become easy to understand the meanings of each one of these words. Anachronistic shoes, chronological sequence and chronic disease have an element of time which is common to all these words and that we know as we know the root chronos mean time. Ben/Bon means good and that’s why bonus, bonny, benevolent, benefit, benign, benediction are all good things while mala fide, malign, malice, mal-de-mer, malaria, malediction are all bad things.(the root mal = bad). So roots help us to improve our knowledge of vocabulary and also supplement it in an incremental manner. Every root that we learn brings to us, understanding of another ten-twelve words at least. ARE YOU READING, DUDE? This is the best way of improving your vocabulary. Those who read a lot generally have strong vocabularies and do not need to work at learning the meanings of words separately. It is quite easy for strong readers to be able to infer the meanings of the words with actually knowing them. This happens as their contextual awareness is very strong and that leads them to understand the meaning of any text even if they don’t know as many as one-fifth of the total words. So as the last piece of advice, I will suggest that you work on your reading along with working on your vocabulary. The reading will actually serve to reinforce whatever you have read and thereby cement the words in your minds. What you read is also just as important as reading. So when you read, take up a good quality newspaper and select a few good writers/thinkers and read them. Not only will your vocabulary become stronger but you will also end up being a well-read person! Well guys i think that was a lot of input from my side about how to improve your word power or vocabulary.

Remember one thing though, even the smallest steps will count in the journey of a lifetime, so even if you learn just 5 words a day, it will be a start and will bear fruit soon. Like any prima donna, you will then perform and be able to say “Veni, Vidi, Vici” or I came, I saw, I conquered! Abhilasha Swarup Mentor, Clat Possible

Legal Reasoning and Knowledge This chapter gives a brief introduction to the concept of law and the subjects a law aspirant is expected to have basic ideas of, viz., criminal laws, the Constitution, law of contract, law of torts and legal general knowledge. It is to be borne in mind that a law-school aspirant, unlike a lawyer or a law student, is not expected to have a detailed understanding of the finer nuances of law. The questions asked in all the law school entrance examinations, CLAT included, contain the necessary legal Principles before the questions. Such Principles are expected to guide the students in arriving at the correct answer. With regards to legal reasoning questions, a law school entrance examination candidate is advised to treat the questions as puzzles, the Principles as the clues to solving the puzzles and the options given, considering that most of the entrance examinations these days are in MCQ form, as possible and plausible solutions to the Puzzle. Each legal reasoning question contains one or more Principles and the student is expected read the principle or Principles as applicable to any particular question before attempting to solve the question because using a differ17

SUBJECT ANALYSIS

ent set of Principles or not using any of the Principles and depending on personal discretion to arrive at a solution might, and in most probability, will, lead to an answer which is different from the expected correct answer. Thus, the correctness or incorrectness of an answer will depend as much on the problems as on the Principle(s) attached to them. LAW Every individual who lives in society has a general idea of what law is. In lay terms, it is a system of rules (as explained by eminent scholar and jurist HLA Hart in his The Concept of Law), enforced through social institutions and is meant to regulate and govern behavior of individuals and groups. The three pillars of a democracy, viz., the legislature, the executive and the judiciary, revolves around law. The legislature makes the law, the executive enforces them and the judiciary adjudicates disputes arising out of breach and application of law. The history of law is as old as human civilization and the first coded law was the code developed by Hammurabi in Babylon in 1772 BC. Most of the ancient legal tenets and dictums were of a politico-religious nature and religious laws, such as those given through the Ten Commandments of Moses, through The Old and the New Testaments, the Manu Samhita of India and the Quran containing Islamic laws were some of the ancient religious texts which contained laws binding the adherents of their religion and because almost all the ancient states were religious states (separation of religious authority and state authority was a latter-day post Renaissance development), the laws laid down in these religious books were binding state laws as well. Early Roman law was perhaps one of the oldest quasi-secular laws and the Roman Senate developed detailed and sophisticated laws governing its citizenry. From a philosophical perspective, the approach to law can be divided into normative (which asks “what law is?”) and analytic or prescriptive (which asks “what law ought to be?”). Adherents of the normative school of thought are called legal positivists and those of the analytic school are known as natural lawyers. Prominent positivist jurist of the 19th century, 18

© Clat Possible. All rights Reserved John Austin, defined law as commands of the sovereign backed by threat of punishment on disobedience of those commands. This British approach of legal positivism was a part of utilitarianism, and it influenced the development of post-medieval/colonial Indian legal framework in the British era. Naturalists such as St. Thomas of Aquinas and Jean Jacques Rousseau, on the other hand, approached law as something that reflects the inherent morality of the laws of nature. St. Thomas of Aquinas approached this concept of morality from a Christian perspective and influenced the development of Catholic laws whereas Rousseau approached morality from a secular perspective and was influential in the post French Revolution development of secular laws of Europe. COMMON LAW & CIVIL LAW A) CIVIL LAW: Most countries of the world are governed by Civil law today. In Civil Law system, laws derive their authority from codified legal dicta, and the judges have little or no authority to re-interpret the law and make laws. To be more precise, in Civil Law, case judgments have no binding precedential value and this is primarily where it differs from the other major legal system of the world, i.e., the Common Legal system. Early historical legal codes such as the Code of Hammurabi are examples of ancient Civil law customs, but Civil law, as we understand it today, owes its beginning to Code known as Corpus Juria Civilis, as it was developed by Emperor Justinian of the Holy Roman Empire. Legal and religious scholars, philosophers and scribes who were attached to the early Universities of Europe such as those of Oxford and Bologna and Cambridge which developed during the period which is referred to as the Dark Age of European history, along with clergymen such as St Thomas of Aquinas, developed Civil law through a mix of Customary Laws, Religious Laws (also known as Canon Laws) and Justinian’s Code further, till the approach to law started changing and taking more secular shapes since the late medieval and early modern periods of Renaissance and Enlightenment. Civil Law, as is prevalent in almost the entire of Europe (except the United Kingdom), Africa, Latin America and even some countries of Asia such as Japan, started taking more

© Clat Possible. All rights Reserved modern contours since the 19th Century. Even the Socialist laws, as were developed in the Communist states of erstwhile USSR, Cuba, Bolivia, China etc., form a part of the Civil Law tradition because they follow similar norms of codified law. (The term civil law has yet another connotation. Often, laws which do not deal with liabilities and other legal issues which are not of a criminal or contractual nature are termed as civil laws. Even offences which are not criminal wrongs, such as those covered by the Law of Torts, are termed as “civil wrongs”. For instance, in India, the procedure for adjudication of non-criminal matters is laid out in the Civil Procedure Code (CPC). In all these cases, the word “civil” is used to denote the non-criminal nature of the matters dealt by the laws therein and is not to be confused with Civil Law as the legal system described above) b) Common Law: The Common Law tradition, which India is a part of, is the legal system that evolved in Great Britain and spread out in all of its erstwhile colonies including the USA, Australia and India. In this system, decisions made by judges have binding precedential value and the lower courts are bound by the decisions of higher courts. For example, in India, the Judgments delivered by 6ther Supreme Court bind all the lower courts including the High Courts and these lower Courts cannot over-rule any Judgment delivered on any point of law by the Supreme Court. This law developed in Great Britain after the Norman Conquest – after which all the local legal customs and traditions were merged and the Common Law system emerged out of such merging. Traditionally speaking, Common Law used to depend only of past Judgments as binding laws and hardly a few written laws were present until King Henry VIII passed several laws and created several benches and tribunals as a legal-administrative measure. The colonies of the British Empire were governed by the Common Law system, with several local modifications, and thus, even after independence, most of these colonies maintained Common Law as their general legal tradition, and thus remained Common Law countries. However, in modern times, the distinctions between Civil and Common

SUBJECT ANALYSIS Law have become blurred. Written Laws, in the form of statutes, now form as much a part of Common Law tradition as they do in Civil Law countries. 3. CRIMINAL LAW: Criminal Law or Penal Law deals with crimes and their punishment. Criminal Law defines offences, mentions the penalty sanctioned, and lays out the procedure involved determine the guilt of the accused. Criminal acts, punishable by criminal laws, are not merely offences against an individual, i.e., against the plaintiff, but has to have a broader malicious effect on the society at large. For a person to be held guilty of an offence, it must be proved, beyond reasonable doubt, that the person has committed the crime he is accused of. Existence of two aspects has to be established to hold a person guilty of crime – firstly, the person must be proved beyond reasonable doubt to have committed an act which is deemed by society to be criminal. In legal lingo, such acts are called actus reus, which is the Latin for “criminal act”. Secondly, the criminal act must be backed by a criminal intention or malicious intent, also termed as “mens rea”, which is the Latin for “guilty mind”. Criminal laws also make certain defences such as actions done in self-defence and under the influence of insanity, available to the accused. In India, the Criminal Laws were first codified in the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (the IPC), under the guidance of Lord Thomas Babbington Macaulay. The IPC is still the major legislation in India which defines the major crimes and prescribes penalties for their commission. The legal processes by which criminal laws are applied are dealt with by the Criminal Procedure Code, which also defines certain vital criminal-law related matters such as bails and warrants. Criminal trial depends heavily on evidences presented to the Court by both the parties and the law of evidences has been encapsulated in the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. There are several other legislations which deal with specific offences other than the ones explicitly mentioned in the IPC. There are also certain laws which deal with one or more of the offences mentioned in the IPC, in a detailed manner. For example, the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 which deals with the subject matter of marital 19

SUBJECT ANALYSIS violence, something which has also been dealt with by Section 498A of the IPC. Again, the Information Technology Act criminalises and sanctions penalties for hacking, data-theft and other cyber-crimes. 4. CONSTITUTION: Constitutional law is the body of law that determines the inter-relationship between the three wings of the state, viz., the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. One of the primary roles of the Constitution is to ensure a strict separation of powers among these three wings. All the other laws and legislations of a country’s legal framework, as well as all administrative and judicial decisions, rules and forms draw their validity from the Constitution and they must conform to the Constitution and if they go against the Constitution, they are deemed bad in law and hence inapplicable. Every country do not have a written constitution but each one of them has a jus commons or the law of the land which determines the validity of the other laws. Let us look at the Constitutions of three major countries: England, the USA and India. a) England does not have a written constitution, but the constitutional principles underlying Common Law and Equity were charted out by scholar AV Dicey and together they were termed as Rule of Law. Rule of Law has two essential features: Equality Before Law and Absence of Arbitrariness. b) The American Constitution is a written one and comprises of the Preamble, seven original articles, twenty-seven amendments, and a paragraph certifying its enactment by the constitutional convention. The Preamble goes as follows: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”.The most important feature of the American Constitution is the first ten of its twenty seven amendments. These first ten Amendments are together referred to as the US Bill of Rights. 20

© Clat Possible. All rights Reserved The US Bill of Rights guarantees certain rights such as Freedom of Religion, Speech, Expression and Assembly (First Amendment), the right to carry arms (Second Amendment), right to not being convicted except by due process of law, right to not being tried for the same offence in the same court twice and right to not being forced to self-incriminate oneself (Fifth Amendment) etc. The primary purpose of the US Bill of Rights is to limit the power of the Congress in restricting the citizen’s of their rights. Incidentally, a similar Bill of Rights was also enacted in England in 1689 to ensure limited interference by the crown in matters of the Parliament, including law-making. c) The Indian Constitution is considered to be the Supreme Law of India. It lays down the framework defining fundamental political principles, establishes the structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions, and sets out fundamental rights, directive principles, and the duties of citizens. It is the longest written constitution of any sovereign country in the world, containing 448 articles in 22 parts and 12 schedules. Besides the English version, there is an official Hindi translation. Dr B.R. Ambedkar is venerated as the father of the Indian Constitution because he headed the Constituent Assembly which oversaw the framing of the Constitution. The Constitution was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949, and came into effect on 26 January 1950. A composite snapshot of all the Parts and Schedules of the Indian Constitution is as follows: The Preamble: The Preamble sets out the tone, tenor and spirit of the Constitution at the outset. Parts: The Constitution is divided into 22 parts, which are: Part I – Union and its Territory Part II – Citizenship. Part III – Fundamental Rights. Part IV – Directive Principles of State Policy. Part IVA – Fundamental Duties. Part V – The Union. Part VI – The States. Part VII – States in the B part of the First Schedule(Repealed).

© Clat Possible. All rights Reserved Part VIII – The Union Territories Part IX – The Panchayats. Part IXA – The Municipalities. Part IXB – The Cooperative Societies Part X – The scheduled and Tribal Areas Part XI – Relations between the Union and the States. Part XII – Finance, Property, Contracts and Suits Part XIII – Trade and Commerce within the territory of India Part XIV – Services Under the Union, the States. Part XIVA – Tribunals. Part XV – Elections Part XVI – Special Provisions Relating to certain Classes. Part XVII – Languages Part XVIII – Emergency Provisions Part XIX – Miscellaneous Part XX – Amendment of the Constitution Part XXI – Temporary, Transitional and Special Provisions Part XXII – Short title, date of commencement, Authoritative text in Hindi and Repeals SCHEDULES: Schedules are lists in the Constitution to streamline administrative activities and policies. • First Schedule (Articles 1 and 4)- This lists the states and territories of India, lists any changes to their borders and the laws used to make that change. • Second Schedule (Articles 59, 65, 75, 97, 125, 148, 158, 164, 186 and 221)- – This lists the salaries of officials holding public office, judges, and Comptroller and Auditor General of India. • Third Schedule (Articles 75, 99, 124, 148, 164, 188 and 219)—Forms of Oaths – This lists the oaths of offices for elected officials and judges. • Fourth Schedule (Articles 4 and 80) – This details the allocation of seats in the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of Parliament) per State or Union Territory. • Fifth Schedule (Article 244) – This provides for the administration and control of Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes (areas and tribes needing special protection due to disadvantageous conditions).

SUBJECT ANALYSIS • Sixth Schedule (Articles 244 and 275)— Provisions for the administration of tribal areas in Assam, Megha laya, Tripura, and Mizoram. • Seventh Schedule (Article 246)—The union (central government), state, and concurrent lists of responsibilities. Only the Central Government can make laws on matters mentioned in List I (Union List) of this Schedule, only the State Governments can make laws on matters mentioned List II (State List) of this Schedule and both Central and the State Govern ments have right to make laws on matters mentioned under List III (Concurrent List) of the Schedule. • Eighth Schedule (Articles 344 and 351)—The official languages. • Ninth Schedule (Article 31-B) – Originally Articles mentioned here were immune from judicial review on the ground that they violated fundamental rights. but in a landmark judgment in 2007, the Supreme Court of India held in I.R. Coelho v. State of Tamil Nadu and others that laws included in the 9th schedule can be subject to judicial review if they violated the fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 14, 15, 19, 21 or the basic structure of the Constitution • Tenth Schedule (Articles 102 and 191)— ”Anti-defection” provisions for Members of Parliament and Members of the State Legislatures. • Eleventh Schedule (Article 243-G)—Panchayat Raj (rural local government). • Twelfth Schedule (Article 243-W)—Municipalities (urban local government). Among these, the Preamble, the Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of State Policy and are important for the CLAT examination. Let us look at each of these elements in brief: i) The Preamble sets out the idealistic base and guiding purpose of the Constitution. It introduces India as a “sovereign socialist, secular, democratic republic” and states that the purpose of the Constitution is to ensure, uphold and foster Justice, Equality, Liberty and Fraternity among the citizens of India. Though the Supreme Court has stated in the Berubari Judgment that the 21

SUBJECT ANALYSIS

Preamble is not an integral part of the Constitution and is not an enforceable law, the Court has also underlined the importance of the Preamble in the celebrated Keshavananda Bharti Judgment, stating that it can be used to interpret ambiguous parts of the Constitution. The Preamble was modified once, by the 42nd Amendment Act of 1976, by through which the words “sovereign” and “secular” were added to it.

ii) The Fundamental Rights (Part III: Articles 12-32 except 31): They are the rights which every individual has against the state, i.e., these are the rights of an individual which the state cannot take away. These rights are a bundle of essential civil liberties the Constitution has envisaged for the individuals. The basic fundamental rights guaranteed in this part are:

Right

Applicability

Article(s)

Notes

Right to Equality

All citizens

14-18

Art. 14: Equality before law and equal protection before law. Art. 15: Social equality and equal access to public areas: Art. 16: Equality in matters of public employment Art. 17: Abolition of untouchability Art. 18: Abolition of Titles

Right to Freedom

All individuals including citizens and non citizens

Guarantees six Rights: • Freedom of speech and expression • Freedom to assemble peacefully without arms • Freedom to form associations or unions • Freedom to move freely throughout the territory of India • Freedom to reside and settle in any part of the territory of India • Freedom to practice any profession or to carry on any occupation, trade or business All of these rights are subject to reasonable restrictions imposed by the State for reasons of law & order, public policy etc.

SUBJECT ANALYSIS

Applicability

Article(s)

Notes

Right to Life and Education

All citizens

20-22

Art. 20: No one can be awarded punishment which is more than what the law of the land prescribes at that time. no person can be convicted twice for the same offence Art. 21: No citizen can be denied his life and personal liberty except by law. “Personal liberty” includes all the freedoms which are not included in Article 19. Art. 21A: Right to free and compulsory education till the age of 14. Art. 22: No one can be arrested without being told the grounds for his arrest. If arrested, the person has the right to defend himself by a lawyer of his choice. Also an arrested citizen has to be brought before the nearest magistrate within 24 hours.

Right against exploitation

All citizens

23-24

Art. 23: abolishes trafficking in human beings and forced labor Art. 24: Abolishes employment of children below the age of 14 years in dangerous jobs like factories and mines

Right to freedom of religion

All citizens

25-28

Cultural and Educa- All minority communities tional Rights

29-30

Art. 29: All minority groups, religious or linguistic, have the right to conserve their own culture. In granting aid to institutions, the State cannot discriminate against any institution on the basis of the fact that it is administered by a minority institution Art. 30: Right of minorities to establish educational institutions of their choice. 23

SUBJECT ANALYSIS

Right

Applicability

Article(s)

Notes

Right to Constitutional Remedies

All citizens

Every citizen can move Court under this Article whenever he or she feels that they have been denied exercise of any of the Fundamental Rights by the State. The State, against whom the concerned citizen will have to proceed in action under this Article, has been defined under Art. 12. The Supreme Court can issue five writs under this section: i) habeas corpus, ii) mandamus, iii) prohibition, iv) quo warranto, v) certiorari.

iii) Directive Principles of State Policy (Part IV, Articles 36-51): These are not enforceable in Court. These Principles are meant to serve broad guidelines which the Union & the States need to follow while making laws, policies etc. The State is bound to make efforts to implement the Principles mentioned in this Part, and examples of prominent State Policies and Acts for this purpose are the Five Year plans, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, implementation of Right to Education as a Fundamental Right under Art. 21A of the Constitution vide the 86th Constitutional Amendment Act of 2002 etc. These principles, inspired by the Directive Principles given in the Constitution of Ireland, reflect ideals of Gandhian socialism and deal with social justice, economic welfare, foreign policy, as well as legal and administrative matters. 5) LAW OF TORTS: The word “tort” comes from the Latin word “tortum” meaning wrong or injustice. This branch of law deals with civil wrongs committed by individuals against other individuals. A claim under tort is different from one under criminal laws and the justice delivery mechanism acts differently for law of torts and criminal law. This is largely because torts are not considered as actions whose 24

graveness and social impact are as deep as that of crimes. A crime, besides being a wrong against the individuals against whom the crime is committed, is also a wrong against society at large. The most prominent liability that arises under tort law is negligence. If the injured party can prove that the person believed to have caused the injury acted negligently – that is, without taking reasonable care to avoid injuring others – tort law will allow compensation. However, tort law also recognizes intentional torts, where a person has intentionally acted in a certain way to harm another person, and strict liability, which allows recovery under certain circumstances without the need to demonstrate negligence. In common law parlance, the person who commits the tort in question is referred to as the tortfeasor. The main categories of tort are: i) Negligence: This is the damage caused by the breach of a duty of care which tortfeasor had towards the victim. Proving tortious liability of the alleged offender requires the victim to first establish that the alleged tortfeasor had a duty of care towards him and then to establish that the alleged tortfeasor has breached standards required out of that duty. ii) Statutory Torts: Certain statutes establish liability

© Clat Possible. All rights Reserved which are akin to tort law liability and the justice delivery system envisaged by such legislations also follow the norms of tort law action, such as awarding of damages. One prominent example in the Indian context would be the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, which establishes the standards of care a provider of goods and services owes to the consumers, also establish a grievance redressal and damage awarding procedure through Consumer Courts, where consumers can file their complaints and grievances when they feel that any provider of goods and services have breached the standards of care, laid down under this Act, which they (the providers of such goods and services) owe to their customers. iii) Nuisance: The tort of nuisance allows a claimant to sue for most acts that interfere with their use and enjoyment of their land. When the interference is of such nature that it can cause great damage to the environment or the public in the vicinity, “strict liability” exists on the person who has the potential to cause such nuisance. For example, if someone keeps something on his land or premises, such as a great mass of water which can easily overflow and cause immense damage to the neighbouring areas, or a ferocious wild animal or a channel or pipeline which emits toxic industrial by-products, the person is under “strict liability” to ensure that the potential threat is averted at any cost and if damage is actually caused by such dangerous objects or creatures, it would not be sufficient for him to show that he had taken all necessary precaution or a reasonable standard of care to ensure that the mishap does not occur. This concept, also known as strict liability, was established in Common Law, by the Rylands v. Fletcher Judgment. iv) Defamation: The tort of defamation comprises of written/otherwise published in permanent form or spoken words or representations which have a potential of damaging the name and reputation of an individual, and casts ignoble aspersions on the persons moral standing, character, thereby harming him in his personal or professional life. If the defamatory matter exists in writing, printing or in any other permanent form (such as cinematograph reels or broadcastings), it is the defamation

SUBJECT ANALYSIS of libel and if it is through spoken words, the offence is defamation through slander. In England, libel is actionable per se, but slander, except in certain cases involving aspersions on cast or employability or of a woman’s chastity, is actionable only with proof of special damage. However, in India, both libel and slander are actionable per se. However, defence of truth is always a valid and cogent defence and if the aspersions cast on the claimant’s character or reputation the alleged offender are proved to be true by the alleged offender, the claimant, in most cases, cannot claim damages. Right to parody, right to criticize and right to do caricatures (without attracting the reasonable restrictions mentioned in Art. 19(2) of the Constitution), are preserved from this offence by the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression under Art. 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. v) Intentional torts: This head includes: a) Intentional Torts against body: These include assault, battery, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and fraud. b) Intentional Torts against property: Action under this form of tort arises from unreasonable interference with property. The three most common forms of this are: Trespass to land, trespass to chattels (personal property), and conversion. vi) Economic torts: There is no broad or sweeping categorical definition or taxonomy of economic torts. All economic offences which are of a non-criminal nature fall under this head. Since the Hedley Byrne v Heller Judgment of 1964, a victim of negligent misstatement may recover damages for economic loss caused by detrimental reliance on the statement. The defences which are generally available to the alleged tortfeasor in a tort law suit are: • Volenti non fit injuria or the defence of consent • Ex turpi causa non oritur action or Plaintiff is the wrongdoer • Inevitable Accident • Novum Actum Interveniens (new act intervenes to beak link of causality of the alleged act and its effect) • Vis Major or Act of God (unforceable extreme 25

SUBJECT ANALYSIS • • •

calamity, fire, war, etc) Act in relation to Private Defence The defence of necessity Act in respect to Statutory Authority

6. LAW OF CONTRACTS: Contract is an agreement enforceable in court of law, entered into by two or more persons. The essential elements of contract are: 1) Offer and acceptance 2) between two or more competent persons, i.e., persons having lawful capacity to enter into such an agreement 3) in exchange of consideration 4) thus creating mutual obligations The remedy for breach of contracts lies in awarding of damages by court of competent jurisdiction or by injunction for specific performance by such a court. Certain circumstances can make the contract void. Such circumstances include lack of capacity on the part of one or more parties to form such a contract due to reasons such as not attaining the age of majority or being under any incapacitating mental ailment, consent to enter into the contract obtained through stress, duress, undue influence or fraud exerted on one party by the other, one party misinterpreting the terms of the agreement and agreeing to it on the basis of such wrong understanding (also known as non est factum) etc. The law also allows for some defences for non-performance of contract. Examples of such defences are: • Frustration of purpose (Undermining of the original purpose of the contract due to subsequent occurance of some unforeseen event) • Mistake (erroneous belief on some facts while entering into the contract) • Misrepresentation (false statement of fact made by one party to another) • Impossibility of performance • Impractibility of performance • Illegality of objective • Involvement of plaintiff in circumstances leading to the non-performance • Presence of unconscionable terms, i.e., terms which 26

© Clat Possible. All rights Reserved are either biased against or biased towards one or more of the parties Contract law in India is regulated by the Indian Contract Act of 1872. The Act, which originally had 266 sections, deals extensively on a wide range of themes and concepts related to the law of contracts and its application and applicability in the Indian context. Section 2(h) of this Act defines contract as “any agreement enforceable by law”. Besides dealing with the concepts discussed above, it also deals with and lays down the law on several related concepts such as bailment, which, as defined in Section 148 of the Act, is “the delivery of goods by one person to another for some purpose, upon a contract that they shall, when the purpose is accomplished, be returned or otherwise disposed of according to the directions of the person delivering them” and agency which is the contractual relationship where one person (the principal) contractually engages another person (the agent) to act for him and on his behalf for any legal purpose (such as selling goods, advertising, organising events, engaging in publicity campaigns etc.) 7. LEGAL GK A wide variety of questions can come from these. The Constitution is one place where the CLAT guys love setting questions from. It is advisable for CLAT (or NLU-D AILET, or Symbiosis SET or any other entry level competitive exam) aspirants to gather as much information on the Constitution, the Framing of the Constitution, the Constitutions of other countries which have influenced certain provisions of our Constitution (eg. The Emergency provision of the Indian Constitution is influenced by the Weimer Constitution of Germany). The underlined portions in the previous sections of this write-up are other potential goldmines for questions on this topic. All law aspirants should keep themselves abreast of some basic legal doctrines, informations, philosophies and scholars, along with tidbits such as the date from which major acts such as the IPC and the Indian Contract Act came to be, the date on which the Indian Constitution was enacted etc. Atindriyo Chakrabarty