KSLU Solved Question Papers
Legal Methods
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 1
2021 Oct Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 1 Legal Methods 2021 Oct 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 2021 Oct examination.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2021 Oct examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2021 Oct 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
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
(a)State the essential functions of legal process.[10]
Answer
For full marks, cover: what legal process means; Alan Watson's view of the one essential function, with its three parts; the other functions a legal process performs (order, protection of rights, legitimacy, social change, predictability); how the Indian Constitution and statutes build these functions in; the cases; a table; criticism; a conclusion.
What legal process means
Legal process is the machinery by which a society makes, applies and enforces law. Its centre is the settlement of disputes by an authority recognised for that purpose: a court, a tribunal, or an arbitrator acting under law. It includes the rules of procedure, the officials who apply them, and the steps from complaint to final order.
Alan Watson: the one essential function
Alan Watson, in The Nature of Law (1977), asked which function every legal process, in every society, must perform. He separated the necessary features of law from the merely typical ones. His answer is usually summarised like this. The sole essential function of a legal process is to resolve disputes in a way that inhibits further unregulated conflict. That function has three parts.
- To institutionalise disputes. A quarrel is taken out of private hands and placed before a recognised body that follows fixed rules.
- To validate decisions. The decision carries authority, so the parties and society accept it as binding.
- To inhibit unregulated conflict. Once decided, the dispute should not break out again in violence or self-help.
Watson reached this by elimination. Other functions, such as making society just, are important but not found in every legal process. So, for him, they are not essential.
The other functions of legal process
Most writers add functions that a developed legal process performs, even if not all are "essential" in Watson's strict sense.
- Maintaining order and security. The criminal process replaces private revenge with public punishment.
- Protecting rights. Courts enforce rights against other persons and against the State.
- Giving legitimacy to power. Official action is valid only when it follows the law.
- Providing certainty. Settled procedures and precedents let people predict outcomes.
- Adapting law to change. Courts interpret law to meet new facts.
How Indian law builds these functions in
- A forum for every dispute. Section 9 of the Code of Civil Procedure 1908 gives civil courts power to try "all suits of a civil nature" unless barred.
- Finality. Res judicata (section 11 of the CPC) stops the same matter being fought again between the same parties. This inhibits renewed conflict.
- Authority of decisions. Article 141 makes the law declared by the Supreme Court binding on all courts.
- Fair procedure. Article 21 requires procedure that is fair, just and reasonable.
The cases
Anita Kushwaha v. Pushap Sudan, (2016) 8 SCC 509. Transfer petitions raised whether the Supreme Court could move cases to and from Jammu and Kashmir, where the ordinary transfer provisions did not apply. The Court held that access to justice is a fundamental right under Articles 21 and 14. It named four facets. The State must provide an effective adjudicatory mechanism. It must be reasonably accessible in distance. The process must be speedy, and it must be affordable. These are the conditions on which a legal process can perform its essential function.
P.T. Thomas v. Thomas Job, (2005) 6 SCC 478. A dispute between brothers was settled before a Lok Adalat, whose award required a sale deed against payment. The High Court later treated the award as open to challenge. The Supreme Court set that aside. Section 21 of the Legal Services Authorities Act 1987 deems a Lok Adalat award to be a decree. The award is final, and no appeal lies against it. The case shows the legal process validating a settlement and closing the dispute.
Zahira Habibulla H. Sheikh v. State of Gujarat, (2004) 4 SCC 158. After witnesses in the Best Bakery case turned hostile under threat, the Supreme Court ordered a retrial outside the State. It held that "Denial of a fair trial is as much injustice to the accused as is to the victim and the society." A process that does not command trust cannot inhibit further conflict.
| Function | What it means | Indian illustration |
|---|---|---|
| Institutionalising disputes | A recognised forum decides | CPC s.9; Anita Kushwaha |
| Validating decisions | Decisions carry binding authority | Art. 141; Lok Adalat award (P.T. Thomas) |
| Inhibiting unregulated conflict | The dispute ends there | Res judicata, CPC s.11 |
| Protecting rights fairly | Fair procedure for all sides | Art. 21; Zahira Habibulla |
Criticism
- Watson's view is narrow. Critics say a function can be necessary without being the only essential one. Protecting rights, for example, seems just as basic in a modern State.
- Delay weakens every function. A dispute that takes many years to decide keeps conflict alive, which is why speedy trial has been read into Article 21.
- Cost excludes the poor. Without legal aid, the legal process is open in theory but closed in fact.
Conclusion. The essential function of legal process, in Watson's account, is to settle disputes so that they do not erupt again. It does this by taking disputes into a recognised forum, giving its decisions authority, and closing the matter. A developed legal process also keeps order, protects rights, legitimises power and adapts the law. Anita Kushwaha, P.T. Thomas and Zahira Habibulla show that these functions are achieved only when the process is accessible, final and fair.
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