Law Legal Studies · Civics Polity

Legal Principles and Doctrines

2,603 Questions

Legal principles and doctrines establish the foundational rules of jurisprudence and civil rights. Questions cover constitutional reasonable restrictions, courtroom evidence standards, and property laws. These topics are strictly necessary for law legal studies exams and judicial services prelims.

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Legal Principles and Doctrines Questions

Multiple choice

Section 26, provides

  1. when instrument may be rectified

  2. where rescission may be adjudicated

  3. alternative prayer for rescission in suit for specific performance

  4. None of these
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Section 26 of the Specific Relief Act deals with rectification of instruments. It allows courts to correct written instruments that do not reflect the true intention of the parties due to fraud or mistake.

Multiple choice

Section 27, provides

  1. where rescission may be adjudicated or refused

  2. when instrument may be rectified

  3. application of proceeding Sections to certain awards and testamentary directions to execute settlements

  4. None of these
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Section 27 provides the circumstances under which courts may adjudicate rescission or refuse it. It sets forth the principles for when this cancellation remedy will be granted versus when it will be denied.

Multiple choice

Which one of the following statement regarding the preamble is correct

  1. it is not enforceable in a court of low

  2. it has been amended twice

  3. All the above are correct

  4. none of these

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

The preamble is indeed not enforceable in a court of law - it is non-justiciable, meaning courts cannot directly enforce it or give remedies based solely on the preamble. However, the preamble contains a typo: 'court of low' should be 'court of law'. Courts can use the preamble as an interpretive aid to understand the Constitution's basic philosophy when there is ambiguity in constitutional provisions. The preamble has only been amended once (42nd Amendment, 1976), not twice.

Multiple choice

What are writs?

  1. Habeas corpus

  2. Mandamus

  3. Quo warranto

  4. All of the above
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

Article 32 empowers the Supreme Court and Article 226 empowers High Courts to issue five types of writs: Habeas Corpus (to produce a detained person), Mandamus (to direct a public authority), Quo Warranto (to question legality of holding office), Certiorari (to quash illegal orders), and Prohibition (to prohibit lower courts). All listed writs are valid constitutional remedies.

Multiple choice

Name the three pillars on which the foundation of every order of injunction rests.

  1. Prima facie case, injury with damage and balance of inconvenience

  2. Prima facie case, reparable injury and balance of convenience

  3. Prima facie case, irreparable injury and balance of convenience

  4. Prima fade case, damage without injury and balance of convenience
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

At the stage of passing an interlocutory order such as on an application for the grant of ad interim injunction under Rule 1 or 2 of Order 39 of the CPC, the competent court shall have to form its opinion on the availability of a prima facie case, balance of convenience and irreparable injury, the three pillars on which rests the foundation of any order of injunction.

Multiple choice

Whenever a charge is altered or added to by the court after the commencement of a trial, the prosecutor and the accused

  1. shall be allowed to recall or resummon and examine with reference to such alteration or addition any witness who may have been examined

  2. shall be allowed to recall or resummon and examine with reference to such alteration or addition any witness who may have been examined, unless the court for reasons to be recorded in writing, considers that the prosecutor or the accused, as the case may be, desires to recall or re-examine such witness for the purpose of vexation or delay or for defeating the ends of justice

  3. shall not be allowed to recall or resummon and examine with reference to such alteration or addition any witness who may have been examined

  4. shall not be allowed to recall or resummon and examine with reference to such alteration or addition any witness who may have been examined because such witness may be vexed

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Under Section 217 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, whenever a charge is altered or added to by the court after the commencement of the trial, the prosecutor and the accused shall be allowed to recall or re-summon, and examine with reference to such alteration or addition any witness who may have been examined, unless the court for reasons to be recorded in writing, considers that the prosecutor or the accused, as the case may be, desires to recall or re-examine such witness for the purpose of vexation or delay or for defeating the ends of justice. 

Multiple choice

Propositions regarding confession of a co-accused, not required to be on oath and cannot be tested by cross examination are

(i) no evidence within the meaning of S.23 of Evidence Act and cannot be the foundation of a conviction (ii) the only limited uses which can be made of a confession of a co-accused is by way of furnishing an additional reason for believing such other evidences as exists (iii) a weak type of evidence and is much weaker than the evidence of an approver

  1. Only (ii) and (iii) are correct

  2. Only (i) and (iii) are correct

  3. Only (i) and (ii) are correct

  4. (i), (ii) and (iii) are correct
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Propositions regarding confession of a co-accused, not required to be on oath and cannot be tested by cross examination are the only limited uses which can be made of a confession of a co-accused by way of furnishing an additional reason for believing such other evidences as exists and is a weak type of evidence and is much weaker than the evidence of an approver.

Multiple choice

A dispute regarding handwriting can be proved by

  1. calling an expert

  2. examining a person acquainted with the handwriting of the writer of the questioned document

  3. Both (1) and (2)

  4. None of the above
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

A dispute regarding handwriting can be proved by calling and expert or examining a person acquainted with the handwriting of the writer of the questioned document.

Multiple choice

“The doubt, the benefit of which the accused is entitled, must be such as, rational thinking, sensible man may fairly and reasonably entertain, not the doubts of a vacillating mind that has not the moral courage to decide but shelters itself, in a vain and idle skepticism. There must be doubt which a man may honestly and conscientiously entertain.”

  1. Cockburn

  2. Lord Halsbury

  3. Lord Black

  4. None of the above
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Cockburn, C.J. said, "the doubt, the benefit of which the accused is entitled, must be such as rational thinking sensible man may fairly and reasonably entertain, not the doubts of a vacillating mind that has not the moral courage to decide but shelters itself, in a vain and idle skepticism.

Multiple choice

Which of the following does not form part of Actus Reus?

  1. Thought of conduct

  2. Result of conduct

  3. Circumstances as are specified by law

  4. Conduct
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Thoughts alone can never be punished as crime. Lawmakers are hesitant to impose controls on what people may think, and such laws would also present profound problems of proof and enforcement.

Multiple choice

Under which of the following cases can a statute exclude mens rea?

  1. Public nuisance

  2. Cases in public interest

  3. Both of the above

  4. None of the above
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

A statute can exclude mens rea in case where the public nuisance or public interest is in issue. Mens rea by necessary implication may be excluded from a statute only where it is absolutely clear that the implementation of the object of the statute would otherwise be defeated.