Test: Legal Maxims - 2 - CLAT MCQ

Doli Incapax is a Latin term that means “incapable of doing harm”. This term has been used to describe a presumption of innocence for children in Criminal law in most countries. The basis of this presumption lies in the theory of Criminal responsibility.

Hence, option A is correct.

Per incuriam - literally translated as "through lack of care" is a device within the common law system of judicial precedent. A finding of per incuriam means that a previous court judgment has failed to pay attention to relevant statutory provision or precedents.

Hence, option C is correct.

In common law legal systems, a precedent, or authority, is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts.

Hence, option C is correct.

The essential, crucial, or indispensable ingredient without which something would be impossible: “Her leadership was the sine qua non of the organization's success.” From Latin, meaning “without which nothing.”

Hence, option B is correct.

Ex turpi causa non oritur actio is a legal doctrine which states that a plaintiff will be unable to pursue legal remedy if it arises in connection with his own illegal act.

Hence, option  B is correct.

Suppression or concealment of the truth. It is a rule of equity, as well as of law, that a suppressio veri is equivalent to a suggestio falsi; and where either the suppression of the truth or the suggestion of what is false can be proved, in a fact material to the contract the party injured may have relief against the contract

Hence, option D is correct.

Res gestae (a Latin phrase meaning "things done") is an exception to the rule against Hearsay evidence. Res gestae is based on the belief that because certain statements are made naturally, spontaneously and without deliberation during the course of an event, they leave little room for misunderstanding / misinterpretation upon hearing by someone else (i.e. by the witness who will later repeat the statement to the court) and thus the courts believe that such statements carry a high degree of credibility. Statements which can be admitted into evidence as Res gestae fall into three headings:

1. Words or phrases which either form part of, or explain a physical act,
2. Exclamations which are so spontaneous as to belie concoction, and
3. Statements which are evidence as to someone's state of mind.

Hence, option D is correct.

Doctrine of lis pendens is based on legal maxim 'ut lite pendente nihil innovetur' (During a litigation nothing new should be introduced). A transferee pendente lite is bound by the decree just as much as he was a party to the suit.

Hence, option A is correct.

The natural law, or law of nature; law, or legal principles, supposed to be discoverable by the light of nature or abstract reasoning, or to be taught by nature to all nations and men alike; or law supposed to govern men and peoples in a state of nature.

Hence, option A is correct.

A warning; admonition. A formal notice or warning given by an interested party to a court, judge, or ministerial officer in opposition to certain acts within his or her power and jurisdiction. Originally, a caveat was a document that could be served on either a judge or a public official to give him or her notice that he or she should discontinue a certain proceeding until an opposing party was given an opportunity to be heard. Used in the past by someone objecting to the appointment of an executor or administrator of an estate or to the granting of a patent for an invention, the term caveat is rarely used by modern attorneys.

Hence, option D is correct.