KSLU Solved Question Papers
Legal Methods
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 1
2015 Jun Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 1 Legal Methods 2015 Jun Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2015 Jun examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2015 Jun examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 100 · 13 questions answered
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
Q1Discuss the different types of civil wrongs.[16]
Answer
For full marks, cover: the meaning of a civil wrong and how it differs from a crime (Salmond); the essentials of a civil wrong (injuria and damnum, with Ashby v. White and the Gloucester Grammar School case); the types, each with its source of duty, remedy and authority: tort and its main kinds (Donoghue v Stevenson), breach of contract (s.73), breach of trust (s.23), quasi-contract (ss.68 to 72), constitutional tort (Rudul Sah, Nilabati Behera), statutory civil wrongs (consumer law, Lucknow Development Authority; IT Act s.43); the civil remedies; overlaps; a table; a conclusion.
Meaning
A civil wrong is the violation of a private right. The injured person may bring a civil proceeding and obtain a civil remedy, usually compensation. It differs from a crime, which is a public wrong prosecuted by the State and punished. Salmond explained the difference by what the law does: civil justice consists "in the enforcement of rights", criminal justice "in the punishment of wrongs". In a civil case "the plaintiff claims a right". In a criminal case the prosecutor "is not a claimant but an accuser".
The essentials of a civil wrong
Two ideas lie at the root of civil liability.
- Injuria: the violation of a legal right.
- Damnum: actual loss or harm.
The law gives a remedy for injuria even without damnum, but not for damnum without injuria.
Injury without loss. In Ashby v. White (1703), an elector was wrongfully prevented from voting. The case is the classic example of a right violated without money loss. As the Supreme Court recorded in Lucknow Development Authority v. M.K. Gupta, AIR 1994 SC 787, the House of Lords "invoked the principle of ubi jus ibi remedium" and decreed damages. Where there is a right, there is a remedy.
Loss without injury. In the Gloucester Grammar School case (1410), a schoolmaster set up a rival school next door to the plaintiff's, and students moved to it. As the Karnataka High Court recorded it in Shri H.R. Krishnamurthy v. State of Karnataka (2018), "no action could be maintained". "Competition is no ground of action whatever damage it may cause, provided nobody's legal rights are infringed." The High Court applied the same principle, damnum sine injuria, to a liquor seller who complained of a new competitor.
Type 1: Tort
A tort is a civil wrong arising from the breach of a duty fixed by law and owed to people generally. Salmond described a tort as "a civil wrong" that is "not a mere breach of contract" and "not a mere breach of trust". The remedy is unliquidated damages, fixed by the court, or an injunction.
Its main kinds.
- Negligence: failure to take the care a reasonable person would take, causing harm to someone to whom a duty is owed.
- Nuisance: unreasonable interference with another person's use or enjoyment of land, such as noise, smoke or smell.
- Trespass: unlawful entry on another's land, or direct interference with another's person or goods.
- Defamation: injury to reputation by a false statement made to others.
- False imprisonment: unlawful restraint of a person's liberty.
- Malicious prosecution: starting a criminal case against someone without reasonable cause and with malice.
Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562. A woman drank ginger beer, bought for her by a friend, from an opaque bottle and alleged that a decomposed snail was in it. She had no contract with the manufacturer, so she could not sue in contract. The House of Lords held, by three to two, that a manufacturer owes a duty of care to the ultimate consumer. The case shows that tort liability rests on a duty fixed by law, not on agreement.
Type 2: Breach of contract
A breach of contract is the failure to perform a duty that the parties created by their own agreement. The duty is owed only to the other party. Section 73 of the Indian Contract Act 1872 entitles the party who suffers to "compensation for any loss or damage caused to him thereby". The loss must be one "which naturally arose in the usual course of things from such breach, or which the parties knew, when they made the contract, to be likely to result from the breach of it". Compensation "is not to be given for any remote and indirect loss or damage".
Illustration. A seller agrees to deliver rice on a fixed date and fails to do so. The buyer, forced to buy elsewhere at a higher price, may recover the difference.
Type 3: Breach of trust
A trust arises where one person holds property for the benefit of another. A breach of trust is the trustee's failure to perform that obligation. Section 23 of the Indian Trusts Act 1882 provides: "Where the trustee commits a breach of trust, he is liable to make good the loss which the trust-property or the beneficiary has thereby sustained."
Illustration. A trustee who invests trust money in his own failing business must make good the loss to the beneficiaries.
Type 4: Quasi-contract
Some obligations arise neither from agreement nor from a wrong in the ordinary sense, but from fairness. The Contract Act deals with them in sections 68 to 72 as "relations resembling those created by contract". Section 72 provides that a person to whom money has been paid "by mistake or under coercion, must repay or return it". Failure to discharge such an obligation is a civil wrong, and the injured person receives the same compensation as for a breach of contract.
Illustration. A bank credits money to the wrong account by mistake. The account holder must return it.
Type 5: Constitutional tort
Indian courts have developed a public law remedy of compensation for violation of fundamental rights by the State.
Rudul Sah v. State of Bihar, AIR 1983 SC 1086. Rudul Sah was acquitted in 1968 but kept in jail until 1982, more than fourteen years. The Supreme Court held that Article 21 "will be denuded of its significant content if the power of this Court were limited to passing orders to release from illegal detention". One way to protect it "is to mulct its violaters in the payment of monetary compensation". The State was ordered to pay compensation.
Nilabati Behera v. State of Orissa, AIR 1993 SC 1960. A young man taken into police custody was found dead with injuries the next day. The Supreme Court awarded compensation under Article 32 as a public law remedy "based on strict liability" for breach of fundamental rights.
Type 6: Statutory civil wrongs
Many statutes create new civil wrongs with their own remedies.
- Consumer wrongs. A deficiency in service gives a consumer a right to compensation. In Lucknow Development Authority v. M.K. Gupta, a buyer paid in full for a flat but was never given possession. The Supreme Court held that statutory housing authorities are subject to the Consumer Protection Act 1986. It upheld compensation, including for harassment and mental agony.
- Wrongs relating to computers. Section 43 of the Information Technology Act 2000 lists acts such as damaging a computer system without permission. A person who does any of them "shall be liable to pay damages by way of compensation to the person so affected".
The civil remedies
- Damages: money compensation. They may be substantial, for real loss, or nominal, where a right was violated without loss, as in Ashby v. White.
- Injunction: a court order to stop a wrong, such as a continuing nuisance.
- Restitution: return of money or property, as in quasi-contract.
- Specific performance: an order to perform a contract, where damages are not adequate.
Overlaps
The types overlap. A doctor who treats a paying patient carelessly commits both a breach of contract and the tort of negligence. A trustee who misuses trust money commits a breach of trust and may also commit a crime. One act can thus be a civil wrong of more than one type, and a crime as well. In Indian Oil Corporation v. NEPC India Ltd., (2006) 6 SCC 736, the Supreme Court held that a set of facts may disclose "purely a civil wrong", "purely a criminal offence", or both.
| Type | Duty arises from | Owed to | Remedy | Authority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tort | General law | Persons generally | Damages, injunction | Donoghue v Stevenson; Ashby v. White |
| Breach of contract | Agreement | The other party | Compensation | Contract Act s.73 |
| Breach of trust | Trust over property | Beneficiaries | Make good the loss | Trusts Act s.23 |
| Quasi-contract | Fairness | Person who paid or delivered | Restitution | Contract Act ss.68 to 72 |
| Type | Duty arises from | Owed to | Remedy | Authority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Constitutional tort | Fundamental rights | Victim of State action | Compensation | Rudul Sah; Nilabati Behera |
| Statutory wrong | A statute | Persons the statute protects | Compensation | Lucknow Development Authority; IT Act s.43 |
Conclusion. A civil wrong is the violation of a private right, remedied at the suit of the injured person. Its root is injuria: a legal right violated, with or without loss, as Ashby v. White and the Gloucester Grammar School case show. Its types are torts, breaches of contract and breaches of trust, together with quasi-contractual obligations. Indian law adds constitutional torts, as in Rudul Sah and Nilabati Behera. It also recognises statutory civil wrongs such as deficiency in service, as in Lucknow Development Authority. The remedies are damages, injunctions, restitution and specific performance, and one act may be several civil wrongs at once.
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