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Legal Reasoning

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1. Legal Principles:
1. All agreements are contracts if they are made by the free consent of parties competent to
contract, for a lawful object, and are not hereby expressly declared to be void.
2. Every person is competent to contract who is of the age of majority according to law to which he is
subject, and who is of sound mind, and is not disqualified from contracting by any law to which he
is subject.
3. An agreement to which the consent of the promisor is freely given is not void merely because the
consideration is inadequate; but the inadequacy of the consideration must be taken into account
by the Court in determining the question whether the consent of the promisor was freely given.
Factual Situation: Eragon was born on 19th October 1996. His father Garrow, who was a farmer, left
10 acres of rice fields to Eragon on his death on 1st January 2012. On 25th November 2013, Eragon
received an offer from Morzan to lease out his land for a premium of Rs. 1000 ONLY, for a period of 5
years. Eragon thought it was going to be a good investment as he was occupied with studying for a
law entrance test. Therefore, on 25th November 2014, Eragon accepted the offer to lease his land to
Morzan, the same was duly communicated to Morzan.

Morzan was delighted to know that his offer was accepted. He eventually decided to shift his lodgings
to the leased land. Unfortunately, on 6th January, 2015, Eragon decided to resume his farming
activities along with studying law and decided to revoke the contract with Morzan claiming that he was
a minor when he was offered to contract with Morzan. Morzan is aggrieved and wishes to seek your
counsel. Tell Morzan of the likely consequences of a lawsuit that he has filed against Eragon.

2. Legal Principles:
1. Any law made by the Parliament that infringes the fundamental rights of the citizens is invalid and
unenforceable.
2. Freedom to speech and expression is a fundamental right.
3. The Parliament is competent to impose reasonable restrictions on the exercise of this Right.
4. If the restrictions, of fundamental rights imposed by the Parliament, totally removes or nullifies any
fundamental right then it will be construed as an unreasonable restriction.
Factual Situation: Due to extreme hatred propagated towards the government on social media,
people have started speaking up against the government. In one of the recent incidents, a Professor
of JNU called all the students and media and spoke about the corrupted ministers who are running
the country. After the speech by the Professor of JNU, people started burning down the posters of
ministers in public. They organized a strike in front of the parliament. They also assaulted family
members of the ministers by burning down their cars. Thus, the Parliament passed the law, which
said that if anyone speaks anything against the government or which is offending to any member
forming part of the government, such person would be punished. It created penalty for spreading any
message against the government or any comment on the ministers on social media. Anandita
challenged such a law arguing that it violated fundamental right of speech and expression.

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3. Legal Principles:
1. To succeed in an action for malicious prosecution, the plaintiff must prove that he was prosecuted
by the defendant, such prosecution was without any reasonable cause and such prosecution was
instituted with a malicious intention. Further, the prosecution should have been terminated in the
plaintiff’s favour and there must be some resultant damage to the plaintiff.
2. Reasonable cause is the existence of circumstances, which assuming them to be true, would
reasonably lead any ordinary prudent man and cautious man placed in the position of the accuser
to the conclusion that the person charged was probably guilty of the crime imputed.
3. Malice for the purposes of malicious prosecution means having any other motive apart from that of
bringing an offender to justice.
Factual Situation: Mia was a maid of Mr. and Mrs. Kapoor. She was very good cook and had been
working for Kapoor’s for three years. Mr. Kapoor was extremely fond of Mia’s cooking and often spent
many hours with her learning to cook. Mrs. Kapoor was not very comfortable with this but could not
show her insecurity. She gave an advertisement in the newspaper for a male helper. One day Mrs.
Kapoor noticed an expensive dinner set missing. She told Mr. Kapoor that Mia had been at house all
day except when she went out to buy vegetable with a big bag. Mrs. Kapoor got Mia arrested for theft.
A case was instituted against her even though the dinner set could not be procured from Mia. The
case was pending for 4 months after which Mia was acquitted. Mia could not find gainful employment
anywhere else. Will Mia be successful if she files case of malicious prosecution?

4. Legal Principles:
1. Consideration is an act, forbearance, or return promise bargained for and given in exchange for
the promise.
2. A promise is not enforceable unless it is supported by consideration.
3. Past consideration is not a valid a consideration and has no legal value.
4. Consideration must have some value in the eyes of law.
5. Consideration must be sufficient and not adequate.
Factual Situation: John was a big businessman. He loved his son Hank and hoped that Hank would
someday join his father’s business. Hank was carefree and didn’t care much about his father’s
business. He had a habit of spending his fathers’ money on luxuries and in hanging out with his
friends. Each Sunday, Hank and his friends used to race on their bikes on the highway. One Sunday,
Hank went to race with his friend but got into an accident resulting into severe injuries to Hank. Elvis,
who is a licensed physician was passing on that highway and happened to be there at the time of
accident. He immediately went out of his way to check on Hank and found Hank unconscious. Elvis
immediately treated Hank at the scene and then took him to his hospital. A few days later, John found
about Hank’s accident and his whereabouts and came to the hospital. He was very thankful to Elvis
and told him that “If you continue treating my son, I will pay all of your fees i.e. both for the services
already rendered and for the future services that you will deliver to Hank.” Elvis thanked John and told
him to have patience while he continues treating Hank. The treatment continued but Hank didn’t
regain consciousness. Three days later, he died. John was shocked at his son’s death. Elvis gave
John the bill of treatment which amounted to $5000. The value for Elvis’ services before his
conversation with John was $ 3000 and after the conversation was $ 2000. John was angry and
refused to pay for any of the services. Which of the following is true?

5. Legal Principles:
1. Consensus ad idem is the foundation of contracts to become enforceable.
2. It means that for a contract to become enforceable, meeting of minds is required.
3. Two or more person are said to consent when they agree upon the same thing in the same sense.
Factual Situation: Serena wanted to buy a doll house for her daughter’s 4th birthday. She visited
various shops to buy a doll house but could not find the one she needed. Serena’s friend Blair was an
expert in the doll houses. She herself makes them and sell it to people. Serena approached Blair and
told her how she has been looking for a perfect doll house for her daughter but couldn’t find one.
Serena said to Blair that “I want “The Doll House” for my daughter which would make her happy.”
Serena emphasized to tell Blair that she wants a perfect one of a kind doll house. Blair replied that “I
understood and you can come see it tomorrow near Lindsay Palace and then buy it.” Serena got
really excited and agreed to take it and said that she has already bought it and paid $1000 at that
moment. Blair had a house which she inherited from her mother. Blair had named it “The Doll House”.
It was near Lindsay Palace. She had put it on sale and advertised about it in newspaper. She invited

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 Serena to the house and showed her around the house. Serena really liked the house. Blair asked for
the rest of the money.

6. Legal Principles:
1. In the law of torts, if any person commits any wrongful act which causes injury to another person,
he is held liable and has to pay damages or provide some other remedy which the Court
determines, to the victim of such an act.
2. A person is liable for the tort of negligence if he breaches a legal duty of care he owes to the
plaintiff, and the plaintiff suffered a damage resulting from this breach.
3. In case a person gives his consent to doing of an act which leads to him getting injured, then
even if an injury is caused by the other person, he cannot claim any damages from that person
because the act was one for which he voluntarily consented. This is the principle of volenti non fit
injuria.
Factual Situation: Mouse had two children. Mouse’s first kid is an eight year old boy named Giraffe
and he has a mental disorder. It is because of his mental disorder that Mouse does not take him out
and he lives under his grandmother’s supervision. Mouse’s second child is a one year old daughter
named Piggy and she gets all the attention from Mouse. One day Mouse and the grandmother took
both Giraffe and Piggy to a park nearby. Mouse met Shepherd, another parent and started talking to
him. Shepherd was good looking and attractive. Mouse left Piggy to play on the grass believing that
grandmother would look after Piggy. Mouse got swayed away while talking to Shepherd and got
focussed on the conversation with him. Shepherd suddenly realized that Piggy had gone away and
has reached the road nearby. He ran towards the road to save Piggy. Mickey was driving his van on
the road safely and within the speed limit. Shepherd managed to save Piggy but because of too
much forward momentum collided with Mickey’s van. His leg was injured. Shepherd filed suit against
Mouse and Mickey.

7. Legal Principles:
1. Copyright is a natural right. The work need not be registered in order to be copyright protected.
2. There is Copyright over the expression and not the idea.
Factual Situation: Mekta Kapoor planned to introduce a reality TV show called Swayamvar to the
television industry. She wrote the whole concept of the reality TV show on Swayamvar where she
provided that the bride to be will chose her husband based on participating men being able to
complete certain tasks. The task would involve their ability to handle a panic situation, their ability to
do household chores and their attitude. She showed her idea to the producer Methalani and
requested to bring the show to the TV. Methalani told her that he would think about the show. Later,
he himself released a reality TV show on the concept of Swayamvar where the bride to be will
choose her husband based on his physical strength. Mekta Kapoor on seeing the show found that
Methalani had copied her concept of reality TV show on Swayamvar. Mekta Kapoor sued Methalani
for copyright infringement.

8. Legal Principle: Under the Workmen’s Compensation Act an employer is liable to compensate his
workmen for injuries sustained by them in the course of and out of employment.
Factual Situation: Apco Pvt. Ltd., is a company manufacturing corrugated boxes in New Mumbai. It
has about 2000 workers. It sends its buses to bring its workers to the factory site from different parts
of New Mumbai. Once a strike was called by one group of workers of Apco Pvt. Ltd. Another group of
workers- who belonged to a rival trade union - did not support the strike. When a bus carrying non-
striking workers was going towards the factory, a group of striking workers hurled stones at the bus.
One of the stones hit Mr. Laxman More, a worker in the bus. He sustained a major head injury. Later
he claimed compensation from the management of Apco Pvt. Ltd., for injuries sustained by him.

9. Legal Principles:
1. All agreements are contracts if they are made by the free consent of parties competent to
contract, for a lawful consideration and with a lawful object, and are not hereby expressly declared
to be void.
2. Consent is said to be free when it is devoid of coercion, undue influence, fraud, misrepresentation.
3. A contract is voidable at the option of the party, whose consent is obtained through fraud,
misrepresentation, or coercion.

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 4. A misrepresentation is an untrue statement of fact that induces a party to enter a contract by a
person who had reasonable grounds for believing that the fact was true at the time of the
representation.
Factual Situation: Neha had always dreamt of becoming a model in fashion industry. She had
always focussed on grooming herself to make herself fit to become a model. She had participated in
several beauty pageants and won them. Her father owned the business of furniture. He wanted Neha
to join him in his business after college but Neha did not show any interest in his business. She had
planned to move to Mumbai and explore modelling opportunities for herself in Mumbai. But before she
could finish college, her father died. Through this tough time of her family, Neha’s father’s friend and
business partner Mukul Acharya helped. He advised Neha to take over her father’s business because
she was the only child. Neha had always looked up at Mukul for advices in her life. He had supported
her for her modelling career in her childhood days. But because of the necessity of time, he advised
her regarding the business. She did all the business transactions on advice of Mukul. Mukul wanted
Neha to invest in an upcoming company called “Modular Home” which he believed would profit
Neha’s business. Neha immediately agreed to invest in Modular Home and called the CEO of the
company. The CEO of the company had a well set plan which was made with the help of top financial
and business persons. He knew that his company is going to be a success in the market. Neha called
him and told him that she wanted to invest in the company to which he replied that “it is a great choice
as this company is going to bring you only profit in future.” Neha bought the shares of the company.
After six months of their agreement, the company incurred huge losses which further resulted into
loss to Neha. Neha claimed that the agreement between her and Modular Home is void because it
was obtained by misrepresentation.

10. Legal Principles:

1. A statement is defamatory in nature if it is injurious to a person’s reputation and if the statement
has been published maliciously.
2. Truth, fair comments and opinions based on facts are defences to defamation.
Factual Situation: Osama had been employed by Omama to work for his Nuclear Department.
However, Osama had introduced himself to Omama as Clinton, and he continued to represent himself
to Omama as Clinton for the entire duration of his employment. However, later Omama realized, for
other reasons, that Osama was unprofessional and dishonest and fired him from his job. In order to
ensure that other employers don’t entrust such sensitive information with Osama, he put up an ad
titled ‘Clinton: Unprofessional and Dishonest’. Clinton, who was an acquaintance of Osama, was
angered and filed a suit for defamation. Decide.

11. Legal Principles:

1. A prisoner has the fundamental right to be protected from the co-prisoners.
2. Right to free legal aid at the cost of the State to an accused who cannot afford legal services for
reasons of poverty, indigence or incommunicado situation is part of fair, just and reasonable
procedure under Article 21 of the Constitution.
3. The trial court is under an obligation to tell an accused who fails to afford legal representation that
he is entitled to be represented by a lawyer at the cost of the State.
4. If an accused is not told of his this right and therefore he remains unrepresented by a lawyer, his
trial is vitiated by constitutional infirmity and any conviction as a result of such trial is liable to be
set aside.
Factual Situation: Kalia owned a cloth store in Bhuraganj. He had a thriving business. One day a
group of thugs entered the shop and robbed the store. Kalia had nothing left. He did not have enough
savings to get him by and he joined a group of local middlemen, engaging in brokerage for property
etc. Some days later, news of an armed robbery in a house that was up for rent broke out and Kalia’s
whole group was arrested on suspicion of being involved in the act. While in prison, Kalia told the
warden that he wanted to be shifted to a better cell as there were no proper cooling facilities. The
warden refused to shift him on such a petty consideration. One night, his cellmate, Mogambo attacked
him and he fractured his arm. When his case came up for trial, he had no lawyer to represent him and
he was ultimately sentenced to pay a hefty fine and spend a considerable time in prison.

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12. Legal Principles:
1. Whoever navigates any vessel in a manner so rash or negligent as to endanger human life, or to
be likely to cause hurt or injury to any other person, shall be punished with imprisonment (simple
or rigorous) for a term which may extend to 6 months, or with fine which may extend to Rs.1000 or
both.
2. Whoever knowingly or negligently conveys, or causes to be conveyed for hire, any person by
water in any vessel, when that vessel is in such a state or so loaded as to endanger the life of that
person, shall be punished with imprisonment (simple or rigorous) for a term which may extend to 6
months, or with fine which may extend to Rs.1000, or with both.
3. Whoever exhibits any false light, mark or buoy, intending or knowing it to be likely that such
exhibition will mislead any navigator, shall be punished with imprisonment (simple or rigorous) for
a term which may extend to 7 years, or with fine, or with both.
Factual Situation: Sundaram has a thriving fisheries business. However, there has been tremendous
competition lately between him and another man, Shibbu’s company. Matters went from bad to worse
when on one of its trips from the port of Shilaya to Varduran, Sundaram’s ship, carrying many of his
trade goods was led onto another route after Shibbu’s men cast a light to misguide the ship. On the
way back, Sundaram’s men steered their ship straight into a vessel bearing Shibbu’s name. Most of
the crew on board got injured as a result of this act. Having lost many of his crew members, Shibbu
decided to transport some new members for hire. He was returning with goods from Mallpuram. The
ship did not have proper facilities to transport a horde of people. Still, Shibbu asked at least 50 people
from Mallpuram to board the ship and travel to Shilaya where he would hire them officially.

13. Legal Principles:

1. Nothing is an offence which is done by a person who is, or who by reason of a mistake of fact and
not by reason of a mistake of law in good faith believes himself to be, bound by law to do it.
2. Nothing is an offence which is done by a judge when acting judicially in the exercise of any power
which is, or which in good faith he believes to be, given to him by law.
3. Nothing is an offence which is done by any person who is justified by law, or by reason of a
mistake of fact and not by reason of a mistake of law in good faith, believes himself to be justified
by law, in doing it.
4. Nothing is an offence which is done by accident or misfortune, and without any criminal intention
or knowledge in the doing of a lawful act in a lawful manner by lawful means and with proper care
and caution.
Factual Situation: Amrinder is a mason by profession. One day, he is working with a hammer and
chisel while standing on a ladder. The chisel slips from the wall and hits his co-worker, Lalu, who is
standing near the ladder, on the head and Lalu suffers severe head injury. When the police came to
investigate the incident, Amrinder’s family surrounded them and obstruct them from apprehending
Amrinder. One of the police officers, Ramjas orders his subordinate, Tipu to push everyone and arrest
Amrinder somehow. When Tipu tries to get inside Amrinder’s house to arrest him, Amrinder’s brother,
Jaswinder gets in the way and threatens to beat Tipu. Tipu shoves him aside but Jaswinder hits his
head on the wall and his head starts bleeding. The whole case goes to trial before Justice Sharma.
One day Justice Sharma sees Jaswinder walking by his house. He gets perturbed thinking that
Jaswinder will create trouble and he asks his security guards to threaten Jaswinder. When Jaswinder
starts arguing with the guards, Justice Sharma starts beating Jaswinder with his walking stick. Which
of the following statements is correct?

14. Legal Principles:

1. One can be made liable for trespass of he has entered into someone’s land or property without
permission, irrespective of what his intention was.
2. The owner of the land or property could use any reasonable amount of force to keep the
trespasser away from his property.
Factual Situation: Retired Colonel Abhiroop Swarup used to live alone in his house in RKP Society.
He never interacted with people in his society and preferred to live alone. On the day of Holi festival,
everyone was playing Holi in the Society. Chilren went from one house to another to wish “Happy
Holi” to their neighbours and colour their face. Some children, who were neighbours of Col. Abhiroop
Swarup decided to go and wish “Happy Holi” to Abhiroop Swarup and colour his face. Since the gate
to the bungalow of Abhiroop Swarup was locked, they decided to jump over the gate to enter his

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 bungalow. Colonel Abhiroop Swarup saw Mahim jumping over the gate and thought that he is a thief.
Therefore, Colonel Abhiroop Swarup got his gun and shot Mahim, who was then injured.

15. Legal Principles:

1. Self-defence is an exception to intentionally causing harm.
2. A person must use reasonable force while exercising self-defence.
Factual Situation: Anamika used to live alone at her house and therefore had kept a gun for her
safety. One day, when she was cooking at home, she heard some noise outside her house. She took
out her gun fearing that it would be a thief. She went towards the noise with her gun and saw
somebody wearing black hood outside her house. As soon as the man saw Anamika, he ran away
from the house. Anamika panicked and ran to shoot the man. She ran for a while and then shot the
man. It was found that the man was her neighbour who had come near her house to pick up his ball.
He ran when he saw Anamika with a gun. He sued Anamika for the injury. Anamika claimed right to
self-defence.

16. Legal Principles:

1. Theft is taking way of any movable property dishonestly with an intention to dispossess a person
of such object without his consent.
2. Consent means and includes any express or implied permission granted to a person for specific
usage.
3. Implied permission is said to be granted if by acts or utterances one conveys his acceptance of
usage by another person.
Factual Situation: Bakshi had thrown a party at his house and invited all his friends to celebrate his
birthday. His house is decorated with antique things which impressed everyone in the party. Isha saw
an antique lamp and requested Bakshi to borrow it. Bakshi being in love with Isha, was in awe after
seeing Isha. He immediately said yes. Bakshi then got busy with his boss and was discussing an
urgent and important matter with his boss. Isha wanted to leave the party and therefore asked Bakshi
if she could borrow his car by showing him the keys of the car. Bakshi was deeply involved in the
conversation with his boss and nodded his head and said goodbye to her thinking that she is leaving
by her own car. Two days later, when he visited Isha and saw his car there, he lodged a complaint of
theft against Isha for stealing his car.

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