CLAT

The bench  of Dr DY Chandrachud and MR Shah, JJ has refused to transfer to CBI the criminal cases lodged against Republic TV Editor in-Chief Arnab Goswami for alleged defamatory news show telecast on April 21 in connection with the Palghar mob-lynching case. It also quashed all FIRs against Arnab Goswami except one which was filed in Nagpur and which has been transferred to Mumbai via order dated 24.04.2020.
Delivering the verdict, Justice Chandrachud said, “ Article 32 of the Constitution constitutes recognition of the constitutional duty entrusted to this Court to protect the fundamental rights of citizens. The exercise of journalistic freedom lies at the core of speech and expression protected by Article 19(1)(a). The petitioner is a media journalist. The airing of views on television shows which he hosts is in the exercise of his fundamental right to speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a). India‟s freedoms will rest safe as long as journalists can speak truth to power without being chilled by a threat of reprisal…Free citizens cannot exist when the news media is chained to adhere to one position. Yuval Noah Harari has put it succinctly in his recent book titled “21 Lessons for the 21st Century”: “Questions you cannot answer are usually far better for you than answers you cannot question.”

India’s high-profile Swachh Bharat programme has won it plaudits globally for its goal of providing sanitation to all, but as new survey data from the National Statistical Office (NSO) show, it remains a work in progress. The quest to equip houses in the countryside with a toilet has led to an expansion, but there was a deficit of about 28% as of October last year and not 5% as the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Gramin) had claimed. The declaration that the country has ended ___(1)___ in its rural areas, made to international acclaim on Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, must return to the wish list, going by this survey. It is extraordinary that many States that were declared to be free of open defecation simply did not qualify for the status, according to the NSO data. The Centre has disputed the survey results, but it should ideally treat it as a fresh assessment of how much ground is yet to be covered. The data could help it review performance in staes such as Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan, where the lack of toilets is reported to be higher than the national average. More fundamentally, the survey provides an opportunity to review other social determinants such as education, housing and water supply which have a strong influence on adoption of sanitation. It would be pointless to pursue sanitation as a separate ideal, if communities are unable to see its benefits due to overall deprivation.
Q. The government has decided to merge the National SampleSurvey Office (NSSO) with the What should come in place of blank ?

Directions  Below is given a passage followed by several possible inferences which can be drawn from the facts stated in the passage? You have to examine each inference separately in the context of the passage and decide upon its degree of truth or falsity. 

Q. Statement : Change has swept over Chambal. Its ravines are no longer dominated by the likes of the big names of yesteryear, like Man Singh, Malkhan Singh, Phoolan Devi or Putli Bai. Those who have taken over are petty criminals in comparison, targeting poor farmers and shopkeepers. Their forte is small-time robbing and kidnapping because they are not strong enough to lay hands on big farmers, who were the targets of the previous generation of Chambal dacoits. Survivors of old generation feel their generation comprised rebels who fought against injustice and did not exploit the poor.

 The geography of the Chambal ravines has changed.

Principle: A person abets the doing of a thing, who-- 

First--Instigates any person to do that thing; or

Secondly--Engages with one or more other person or persons in any conspiracy for the doing of that thing, if an act or illegal omission takes place in pursuance of that conspiracy, and in order to the doing of that thing; or

Thirdly--Intentionally aids, by any act or illegal omission, the doing of the thing.

Explanation 1: A person who, by willful misrepresentation, or by willful concealment of a material fact which he is bound to disclose, voluntarily causes of procures, or attempts to cause or procure, a thing to be done, is said to instigate the doing of that thing.

Explanation 2: Whoever, either prior to or at the time of the commission of an act, does anything in order to facilitate the commission of that act, and thereby facilitates the commission thereof, is said to aid the doing of that act.

Principle: A person abets an offence, who abets either the commission of an offence, or the commission of an act which would be an offence, if committed by a person capable by law of committing an offence with the same intention or knowledge as that of the abettor. 

Explanation 1: The abetment of the illegal omission of an act may amount to an offence although the abettor may not himself be bound to do that act.

Explanation 2: To constitute that offence of abetment it is not necessary that the act abetted should be committed, or that the effect requisite to constitute the offence should be caused.

Facts: A instigates B to murder C. B refuses to do so. 

Care should be taken when submitting manuscripts to book publishers. A suitable publisher should be chosen, by a study of his list of publications or an examination in the bookshops of the type of books in which he specializes. It is a waste of time and money to send the typescript of a novel to a publisher who publishes no fiction, or poetry to one who publishes no verse, though all too often this is done. A preliminary letter is appreciated by most publishers, and this should outline the nature and extent of the typescript and enquire whether the publisher would be prepared to read it (writers have been known to send out such letters of enquiry in duplicated form, an approach not calculated to stimulate a publisher’s interest). It is desirable to enclose the cost of return postage when submitting the typescript and finally it must be understood that although every reasonable care is taken of material in the Publishers’ possession, responsibility cannot be accepted for any loss or damage thereto.

Authors are strongly advised not to pay for the publication of their work. If a MS. Is worth publishing, a reputable publisher will undertake its publication at his own expense, except possibly for works of an academic nature. In this connection attention is called to the paragraphs on Self-publishing and vanity publishing, at the end of this section.

Q. In view of the writer –

Farmers have progressed the world over yet they are languishing in this country. Despite decades of industrial development, about 600 million Indians, or roughly half the population, depend on growing crops or rearing animals to earn a living. The country still relies on imports of essential items, such as pulses and cooking oil. Almost half of the average Indian household’s expenditure is on food, an important factor behind inflation. Food security at the micro level remains elusive. The global development experience, especially of the BRICS countries, reveals that one percentage point growth in agriculture is at least two to three times more effective in reducing poverty than the same degree of growth emanating from the non-agriculture sector.

Of late, the woes of the farmer have exacerbated. Untimely rain damaged winter crops in northern India. The heat wave killed more than 2000 people - mostly working in the fields. Suicides by farmers, owing to the low price of their produce, are almost a recurrent tragedy. There is general concern over the monsoon; patchy or inadequate rainfall can spell disaster. Low productivity is a chronic problem because of the shrinking size of the cultivated plots. Two-grain harvests a year are fairly routine. But the yields are low by global standards. The policy message for reforming agriculture is very clear. The areas which merit urgent and concerted attention to streamlining agriculture revolve around investment, incentive, and institutions. We need to rationalise and prune input subsidies. The savings, thus generated, should be invested in agriculture - Research & Development at rural roads, rural education, irrigation and water works. Higher levels of investment in agriculture both by the public and private sector can yield much better results. Policy -makers must be bold to bite the bullet and drastically cut subsidies which will open the avenue for increasing the size of the public investment. One way to contain the subsidy bill is to provide subsidies directly to farmers. Private investment is the engine of agricultural growth. Again, it responds to incentives. Much of the adverse impact on incentives comes from strangulating the domestic market under the Essential Commodities Act (ECA) 1955. This law allows the state to restrict movement of agro-products across state boundaries. Furthermore, the law bans the storage of large quantities of any of the 90 commodities, including onions and wheat. The intention is to deter ‘hoarding’, but it has adversely affected investment in cold storages and warehouses. Therefore, a substantial quantity of crops rots before they reach the dining table.

Statement: The General Administration Department has issued a circular to all the employees informing them that henceforth the employees can avail their lunch break at any of the half-hour slots between 1.00 pm and 2.30 pm.

I. The employees may welcome the decision and avail lunch break at different time slots.

II. There may not be any break in the work of the organization as the employees will have their lunch break at different time slots.

A. The act of using threats to force another person to enter into a contract is called coercion.

B. The act of using influence on another and taking undue advantage of that person is called undue influence.

C. In order to prove coercion, the existence of the use of threat, in any form and manner, is necessary. If coercion is proved, the person who has been so threatened can refuse to abide by the contract.

D. In order to prove undue-influence, there has to be a pre-existing relationship between the parties to a contract. The relationship has to be of such a nature that one is in a position to influence the other. If it is proven that there has been undue influence, the party who has been so influenced need not enforce the contract or perform his obligations under the contract.

Aadil and Baalu are best friends. Aadil is the son of multi millionaire business person, Chulbul who owns Maakhan Pharmaceuticals. Baalu is the son of a bank employee, Dhanraj. One day, Aadil is abducted from his office by Baalu. Chulbul receives a phone call from Dhanraj telling him that if he does not make Baalu the CEO of Maakhan Pharmaceuticals, Aadil will be killed. Chulbul reluctantly agrees to make the Baalu the CEO. Subsequently Chulbul and Baalu sign an employment contract. However as soon as Aadil is released and safely returns home, Chulbul tells Baalu that he shall not enforce the employment contract. Baalu and Dhanraj are not sure as to what is to be done next.

Q.
Baalu will succeed in getting the employment contract enforced if he can show that

The question consist of two statements, one labeled as PRINCIPLE each other as FACT. You are to examine the principle and apply it to the given facts carefully and select the best option.

PRINCIPLE: ignorantia juris non excusat and ingnorantia facit excusat.

FACT: George was a passenger from Zurich to Manila in a Swiss Plane. When the plane landed at the airport at Bombay on 28^th Nov. 1962 it was found on search that George carried 34 kgs of gold bars in person and that he had not declared it in the ‘Manifest for transit’. On 26^th Nov. 1962 Government of India issued a notification and modified its earlier exemption and now it is necessary that, the gold must be declared in the “Manifest” of the aircraft.

Read the passage and answer the question based on it.

An independent, able and upright judiciary is the hallmark of a free democratic country. Therefore, the process of judicial appointments is of vital importance. At present, on account of the Supreme Court’s last advisory opinion, the role of the executive and its interference in the appointment of judges is minimal, which, in light of our previous experience, is most welcome. However, there is a strong demand for a National Judicial Commission on the ground of wider participation in the appointment process and for greater transparency. The composition, the role and the procedures of the proposed National Judicial Commission, must be clearly spelt out, lest it be a case of jumping from the frying-pan into the fire.

Recently, there has been a lively debate in England on the subject. A judicial commission has been proposed but there are not many takers for that proposal. In the paper issued this month by the Lord Chancellor’s Department on judicial appointments, the Lord Chancellor has said, “I want every vacancy on the Bench to be filled by the best person available.

Appointments must and will be made on merit, irrespective of ethnic origin, gender, marital status, political affiliation, sexual orientation, religion or disability. These are not mere words. They are firm principles. I will not tolerate any form of discrimination.”

At present, there are hardly any persons from the ethnic minorities manning the higher judiciary and so far not a single woman has made it to the House of Lords. The most significant part of Lord Chancellor’s paper is the requirement that “allegations of professional misconduct made in the course of consultations about a candidate for judicial office must be specific and subject to disclosure to the candidate”. This should go a long way in ensuring that principles of natural justice and fair play are not jettisoned in the appointment process, which is not an uncommon phenomenon.

Q. According to the passage, there has been a demand for a National Judicial Commission

Directions for questions : Read the information given below and answer the questions that follow.

Five friends A, B, C, D and E play five games — football, badminton, table tennis, carom and softball with each player playing only one game. Also each one of them likes only one of Chinese, South Indian, Gujarati, Italian and Mughlai food. It is also given that football, table tennis and softball are all ball games whereas badminton and carom are indoor games.

I. A does not like South Indian and Mughlai food and play ball games, except table tennis.

II. B and D do not play ball games and one of them likes Italian.

III. C hates Mughlai food and plays a ball game.

IV. E likes Chinese food and plays softball.

Directions : In view of the passage given below: Choose the best option for question.
When talks come to how India has done for itself in 50 years of independence, the world has nothing but praise for our success in remaining a democracy. On other front, the applause is less loud. In absolute terms, India has not done too badly, Of course, life expectancy has increased. So has literacy. Industry, which was barely a fledging, has grown tremendously, As far as agriculture is concerned, India has been transformed from a country perpetually on the edge of starvation into a success story held up for others to emulate. But these are competitive times when change is rapid, and to walk slowly when rest of the world is running is almost as bad standing still on walking backwards.

Compare with large chunks of what was then the developing world South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, China and what was till lately a separate Hong Kong- India has fared abysmally, It began with a far better infrastructure than most of these countries had. It suffered hardly or not at all during the Second World War It ha advantages like a English speaking elite, quality scientific manpower (including a Novel laureate and others who could be ranked according to their global competitiveness, it is tiny Singapore that figures at the top. Hong Kong is an export powerhouse. So is Taiwan. If a symbol were needed of, how far we have fallen back, note that while Korean Ceils are sold in India, no one is South Korea is rushing to by an Indian car. The reasons list themselves, Top most in economic isolationism.

The government discouraged imports and encouraged self-sufficiency. Whatever the aim was, the result was the creation of totally inefficient industry that failed to keep pace with global trends and, therefore, became absolutely uncompetitive. Only when the trade gates were opened a little did this become apparent. The years since then have been spent in merely trying to catch up. That the government actually sheltered it’s the years since then have been spent in merely trying to catch up. That the government actually sheltered its industrialists from foreign competition is a little strange. For in all other respects, it operated under the conviction that businessman were little more than crooks how were to be prevented from entering the most important area of the economy, how were to be hamstrung in as many ways as possible, how were to be tolerated in the same way as an in excisable wart. The high expropriator rates taxation, the licensing laws, the reservation of whole swathes of industry for the public sector, and the granting of monopolies to the public sector firms were the principle manifestations of this attitude. The government forget that before wealth could be distributed, it had to be created.

The government forgot that it itself could not create, but only squander wealth, Some of the manifestations of the old attitude have changed, Tax rates have fallen, Licensing has been al but abolished. And the gates of global trade have been open wide. But most of these changes were first by circumstances partly by the funds of support the public sector, leave alone expand it. Weather the attitude of the government itself, of that of more than handful of ministers, has changed, is open of question. In many other ways, however, the government has not changed one with. Business till has to negotiable a welter of negotiations. Transparency is still a longer way off. And there is no exit policy. In defending the existing policy, politicians betray and inability to see beyond their noses. A no-exit policy for labour is equivalent to a no-entry policy for new business. If one industry is not allowed to retrench labour, other industries will think a hundred times before employing new labour. In other ways, the government hurts industries.

Public sector monopolies like the department of telecommunications and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. make it possible for Indian business to operator only at cost several times that off their counterparts abroad. The infrastructure is in a shambles partly because it is unable to formulate a sufficiently remunerative policy for private business, and partly because it does not have the stomach to change market rates for services. After a burst of activity in the early nineties, the government is dragging its feet. At the rate it is going, it will be another fifty years before the government realizes that a pro-business policy is the best pro-people policy. By then of course, the world would have moved even further ahead.

Q. According to the writer……

After the “Liberalisation”, “Globalisation” and the consequent changes in the new international economic order as well as new information technology order, a new catch-phrase is being coined: `A New Health Order’. Talking about setting it up is the theme of the WHO-sponsored International Conference on Primary Health and Medical Care, currently being held in Milan in Italy. While much has been said and written on establishing “new order”, little has actually been done. Will the conferees at Milan, too, swear by the “New Health Order”, go home and then forget about it, while the present medical and health care set-up in poor countries further "entrenches" itself? This does not have to be the fate of the radical resolutions that will undoubtedly be passed at Milan. Unlike creating a new world economic or information order, establishing a new health set-up is essentially a matter for individual countries to accomplish. No conflict of international interests is involved. But this advantage is, at least until it beings to take concrete shape, only theoretical. The million-dollar question is whether individual third-world governments are able and willing to "muster" the will, the resources, the administrative and other infrastructure to carry out what it is entirely within their power to attain and implement.

The dimensions of the problem are known and the solutions broadly agreed on. The present medical and health-care system is urban-biased, closely geared to drugs, hospitals and expensively trained "allopathic" doctors. The bulk of the population in poor countries, who live in rural areas, are left untouched by all this and must rely on traditional healers. The answer is to turn out medical/health personnel sufficiently, but not expensively, trained to handle routine complaints and to get villagers to pay adequate attention to garbage disposal and other elementary but "crucial" matters. More complicated ailments can be referred to properly equipped centres in district towns, cities and metropolises. Traditional healers, whom villagers trust, can be among these intermediate personnel. Some third-world countries, including India, have "launched" or are preparing elaborate schemes of this nature. But the experience is not quite happy. There is "resistance" from the medical establishment which sees them as little more than licensed quackery but is not prepared either to offer "condensed" medical courses such as the former licentiate course available in this country and unwisely scrapped. There is the question of how much importance to give to indigenous system of medicine. And there is the difficult matter of striking the right balance between preventive health care and curative medical attention. These are complex issues and the Milan conference would perhaps be more fruitful if it were to discuss such specific subjects.

Q. To make the conference really useful, the author suggests:

Principle: A person abets the doing of a thing, who-- 

First--Instigates any person to do that thing; or

Secondly--Engages with one or more other person or persons in any conspiracy for the doing of that thing, if an act or illegal omission takes place in pursuance of that conspiracy, and in order to the doing of that thing; or

Thirdly--Intentionally aids, by any act or illegal omission, the doing of the thing.

Explanation 1: A person who, by willful misrepresentation, or by willful concealment of a material fact which he is bound to disclose, voluntarily causes of procures, or attempts to cause or procure, a thing to be done, is said to instigate the doing of that thing.

Explanation 2: Whoever, either prior to or at the time of the commission of an act, does anything in order to facilitate the commission of that act, and thereby facilitates the commission thereof, is said to aid the doing of that act.

Principle: A person abets an offence, who abets either the commission of an offence, or the commission of an act which would be an offence, if committed by a person capable by law of committing an offence with the same intention or knowledge as that of the abettor. 

Explanation 1: The abetment of the illegal omission of an act may amount to an offence although the abettor may not himself be bound to do that act.

Explanation 2: To constitute that offence of abetment it is not necessary that the act abetted should be committed, or that the effect requisite to constitute the offence should be caused.

Facts: A instigates B to murder D. B in pursuance of the instigation stabs D. D recovers from the wound.

Amnesty International's charge that 'tens of thousands' of political prisoners, including prisoners of conscience, are "languishing" in Indian jails and that prisoners are routinely tortured in this country has to be seen in a much wider context than the organization's annual report cares to do. In its overall appraisal of 151 countries, Amnesty has accused 112 of torturing prisoners, 63 of harboring prisoners of conscience, 61 of resorting to political killings and 53 of detaining people without a trial. Of these apparently "overlapping" categories, India seems to have been excluded from the list of the 61 which undertake political killings. The report has, however, pointed out that "scores" of people in India die of torture in police and military custody and that many also simply disappear. Clearly, only a thin line separates the 61 charged with political murders from the rest. Before coming to such conclusions, however, it may also be necessary to classify the various countries according to their political systems. Torture by the security forces and killings at the behest of the government make no difference to the victims whether they are in a democratic country or a totalitarian one. It is also nobody's case that a democratic country is less "culpable" than dictatorship in the event of human rights violations. But the point that still needs to be made perhaps is that torture or 'disappearances' represent a failure of the system in a democracy in contrast to being an integral part of state policy in a country ruled by an autocrat who is answerable to no one.

India may be guilty of keeping 'tens of thousands' behind bars and of the other human rights abuses mentioned by Amnesty, but it still remains a qualitatively different place from a totalitarian country. It is in this respect that Amnesty has been less than fair. It has chosen to ignore the distinctions between the good, the bad and the ugly. The openness of Indian society will be evident to anyone who spends half an hour in one of its chaotic marketplaces or visits the law courts or watches a political rally or reads a newspaper or "strikes up" a conversation with any person on the roads. There is no sense of fear in India, as in a dictatorship. There is also scope for securing relief from the heavy-handed behavior of the authorities, even if the human rights commission has not yet lived up to expectations. Unless such points are recognized, Amnesty's assessment will seem to be a dry recital of statistics which may "pillory" India simply because of its larger population. Mercifully, Amnesty nowadays at least notes that the terrorists also indulge in human rights violations and that India has to cope with several insurgencies "fomented" by a country where the military does not always seem to be under the control of the elected government. True, there is much that is wrong in India's prison system and with the way the terrorist challenge is sometimes met, but the stress should be on activating the self-correcting mechanism within a democracy and not merely on painting a grim, even biased, picture.

Q. The author is doubtful whether:

Since World War II, the nation-state has been regarded with approval by every political system and every ideology. In the name of modernization in the West, of socialism in the Eastern bloc, and of development in the Third World, it was expected to guarantee the happiness of individuals as citizens and of peoples of societies. However, the state today appears to have broken down in many parts of the world. It has failed to guarantee either security or social justice, and has been unable to prevent either international wars or civil wars. Disturbed by the claims of communities within it, the nation-state tries to repress their demands and to proclaim itself as the only guarantor of security of all. In the name of national unity, territorial integrity, equality of all its citizens and non-partisan secularism, the state can use its powerful resources to reject the demands of the communities; it may even go so far as genocide to ensure that order prevails.

As one observes the awakening of communities in different parts of the world, one cannot ignore the context in which identity issues arise. It is no longer a context of, sealed frontiers and isolated regions, but is one of integrated global systems. In a reaction to this trend towards globalization, individuals and communities everywhere are voicing their desire to exist, to use their power of creation and to play an active part in national and international life.

There are two ways in which the current upsurge in demands for the recognition of identities can be looked at. On the positive side, the efforts by certain populate groups to assert their identity can be regarded as “liberation movements”, challenging oppression and injustice. What these groups are doing – proclaiming that they are different, rediscovering the roots of their culture or strengthening group solidarity – may accordingly be seen as legitimate attempts to escape from their state of subjugation and enjoy a certain measure of dignity. On the downside, however, militant action for recognition tends to make such groups more deeply entrenched in their attitude and to make their cultural compartments even more watertight. The assertion of identity then starts turning into self-absorption, isolation, and is liable to slide into intolerance of others and towards ideas of ethnic cleansing’” xenophobia and violence.

Whereas continuous variations among peoples prevent drawing of clear dividing lines between the groups, those militating for recognition of their group’s identity arbitrarily choose a limited number of criteria such as religion, language, skin colour; and place or origin so that their members recognize themselves primarily in terms of the labels attached to the group whose existence is being asserted. This distinction between the group in question and other groups is established by simplifying the feature selected. Simplification also works by transforming groups into essences, abstractions endowed with the capacity to remain unchanged though time. In some cases, people actually act as though the group has remained unchanged and talk, for example, about the history of nations and communities as if these entities survived for centuries without changing, with the same ways of acting and thinking, the same desires, anxieties and aspirations.

Paradoxically, precisely because identity represents a simplifying fiction, creating uniform groups out of disparate people, that identity performs a cognitive function. It enables us to put names to ourselves and others, form some idea of who we are and who others are, and ascertain the place we occupy along with the others in the world and society. The current upsurge to assert the identity of groups can thus be partly explained by the cognitive function performed by identity. However, that said, people would not go along as they do, often in large numbers, with the propositions put to them, in spite of the sacrifices they entail, if there was not a very strong feeling of need for identity, a need to take stock of things and know who we are, where we come from and where we are, where we come from and where we are going.

Identity is thus a necessity in a constantly changing world, but it can also be a potent source of violence and disruption. How can these two contradictory aspects of identity be reconciled? First, we must bear the arbitrary nature of identity categories in mind, not with a view to eliminating all forms of identification – which would be unrealistic since identity is a cognitive necessity – but simply to remind ourselves that each of us has several identities at the same time. Second, since tears of nostalgia are being shed over the past, we recognize that culture is constantly being recreated by cobbling together fresh and original elements and counter-cultures. There are in our country, a large number of syncretic cults wherein modern elements are blended with traditional values or people of different communities venerate saints or divinities of particular faiths. Such cults and movements are characterized by a continual inflow and outflow of members which prevent them from taking on a self-perpetuating existence of their own and hold out hope for the future, indeed perhaps for the only possible future. Finally, the nation-state must respond to the identity urges of its constituent communities and to their legitimate quest for security and social justice. It must do so by inventing what the French philosopher and sociologist, Raymond Aron, called peace through law. That would guarantee justice both to the state as a whole and its parts, and respect he claims of both reason and emotions. The problem is one of reconciling nationalist demands with the exercise of democracy.

Directions for questions : Read the information given below and answer the questions that follow.

Five friends A, B, C, D and E play five games — football, badminton, table tennis, carom and softball with each player playing only one game. Also each one of them likes only one of Chinese, South Indian, Gujarati, Italian and Mughlai food. It is also given that football, table tennis and softball are all ball games whereas badminton and carom are indoor games.

I. A does not like South Indian and Mughlai food and play ball games, except table tennis.

II. B and D do not play ball games and one of them likes Italian.

III. C hates Mughlai food and plays a ball game.

IV. E likes Chinese food and plays softball.

Q. 
Who among the following plays carom?