KSLU Solved Question Papers
Legal Methods
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 1
2019 Dec Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 1 Legal Methods 2019 Dec Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by Karnataka State Law University at the 2019 Dec examination.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2019 Dec examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2019 Dec 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 80 · 20 questions answered
Instructions printed on the paper
- N.B. (1) Answer all five questions. (2) One essay type and one short note question is compulsory from each Unit. (3) Figures to the right indicate marks. (4) Answers should be written either in English or Kannada completely.
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.
Q1
Unit I
(a)"Law is a means of attaining social harmony by curbing of the evil passions of man". Explain.[10]
Answer
For full marks, cover: what the statement means; the two views of human nature (Hobbes and Rousseau); how law curbs evil passions through criminal law, civil remedies and a peaceful forum; how law also builds harmony by balancing interests; one or two decided cases; the limits of the statement; a conclusion.
Meaning of the statement
The statement makes two claims. The first is that people have evil passions. These are selfish drives such as greed, anger, jealousy, lust for power and the wish for revenge. The second is that law curbs them, which means it holds them back. When these passions are held back, people can live together in peace. That peaceful living together is social harmony.
So the statement treats law as a tool of control. It does not say that every person is wicked. It says that every society contains people who will harm others if nothing stops them. Law is the thing that stops them. It does this by setting rules of conduct and by attaching a sanction, meaning a penalty, to the breach of those rules.
Is man naturally evil? Two views
The statement rests on a view of human nature. Political thinkers have disagreed sharply on this point.
Thomas Hobbes took the darker view. In Leviathan (1651), chapter 13, he described life without a common power to keep people in awe. It would be a condition of war "of every man against every man". Life in that state would be "solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short". For Hobbes, a strong government and its laws are the only cure.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau took the hopeful view. His Social Contract (1762) opens: "Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains." For Rousseau, people are good by nature. Society and its unjust institutions corrupt them. Law is needed, but it must express the general will of the people.
Both views support the statement in different ways. On Hobbes's view, law curbs a selfish nature. On Rousseau's view, law curbs the bad habits that society has taught. Either way, law is needed to keep people from harming each other.
How law curbs evil passions
Law curbs harmful conduct in three main ways.
- The criminal law punishes. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 punishes murder, hurt, theft, cheating and many other acts born of anger or greed. The State, not the victim, prosecutes and punishes. This takes revenge out of private hands.
- The civil law compensates. A person who harms another by a wrong must pay damages. A person who breaks a contract must make good the loss. Greed is less attractive when it has to be paid for.
- Law gives a peaceful forum. Disputes go to a court, not to a fight. Section 9 of the Code of Civil Procedure 1908 gives the civil courts power to try "all suits of a civil nature" unless a law bars them. A quarrel over land ends in a decree, not an injury.
The fear of a sanction deters people. The certainty of a remedy reassures them. Together they replace force with rules.
Law also curbs the passions of the powerful
Evil passions are not found only in private persons. Officials can also abuse power. Law curbs them too.
Nilabati Behera v. State of Orissa, AIR 1993 SC 1960, (1993) 2 SCC 746. A young man was taken into police custody in a theft inquiry. Next day his body was found on a railway track with injuries and handcuffs. The police said he had escaped and been hit by a train. An inquiry found that he died of injuries in custody. The Supreme Court held that compensation under Article 32 is a public law remedy "based on strict liability" for breach of fundamental rights. It awarded Rs. 1,50,000. The case shows law curbing the cruelty of State agents, not just of private criminals.
Law builds harmony, not only control
Curbing is only half of law's work. Harmony also needs fair balancing of interests that clash. Roscoe Pound called this "social engineering".
Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation, (1985) 3 SCC 545, AIR 1986 SC 180. In 1981 the State and the Corporation decided to evict pavement dwellers from Bombay. The dwellers said eviction would take away their livelihood and so their right to life. The Supreme Court held that the right to life under Article 21 includes the right to livelihood. It also held that no one has a right to encroach on pavements meant for the public. It postponed eviction until after the monsoon and recorded the State's assurance of alternative sites. Neither side won everything. That balance is social harmony produced by law.
Limits of the statement
The statement is true, but it is not the whole truth.
- Law cannot change hearts. Article 17 abolished untouchability, yet prejudice did not vanish at once. Law works best alongside education and social effort.
- Punishment is not the main tool. Most law punishes nobody. It records rights, organises government and settles disputes.
- Some thinkers reject the premise. Marxists said law serves the ruling class rather than curbing everyone's passions equally. Anarchists said people can live in harmony without State law at all.
- Law itself can be oppressive. A harsh law can create disharmony, which is why Part III of the Constitution limits what the legislature may do.
Conclusion. The statement is a sound starting point. Human beings do have selfish drives, and without law the strong would rule the weak. Law curbs those drives through punishment, compensation and a peaceful forum, and it curbs the powerful as well, as Nilabati Behera shows. But harmony needs more than restraint. It needs law to balance competing claims fairly, as Olga Tellis did. Law is therefore best described as a means of curbing harmful conduct and of balancing interests. Its aim is that people can live together in security and justice.
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