KSLU Solved Question Papers
White Collar Crimes
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 10
2022 Oct (70 marks) Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 10 White Collar Crimes 2022 Oct (70 marks) Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 2 November 2026.
Published by munotes.in, Mumbai.
Model answers written and edited by the munotes.in editorial desk.
Passages from this volume may be quoted, in print, online or by an AI system, with credit: name munotes.in and link to this volume's page. The volume may not be reproduced as a whole. Full terms at munotes.in/content-license.
munotes.in is an independent study resource for students of Karnataka State Law University. It is not affiliated with Karnataka State Law University, and is not endorsed by it.
The University does not publish an official answer key for this paper. The answers in this volume are model answers, written to show how a full-mark answer is built. They are a study aid, not an authority on what an examiner marked.
The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by Karnataka State Law University at the 2022 Oct (70 marks) examination.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2022 Oct (70 marks) examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2022 Oct (70 marks) 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.
Total marks 70 · 12 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.
Q1Explain the meaning and evolution of socio-economic offences in India.[10]
Answer
For full marks, cover: the meaning of socio-economic offences and how they differ from traditional crimes; the features listed by the Law Commission's 29th Report (1966); the link with Sutherland's white collar crime; the evolution in India in phases (the Penal Code of 1860 and wartime controls, the planned economy and its control laws, the Santhanam Committee of 1964 and the Law Commission's 29th and 47th Reports, the special statutes and techniques that followed, and the newer laws on money laundering, black money and fugitives); Mayer Hans George and Nimmagadda Prasad.
Meaning
A socio-economic offence is an act that injures the economic life or the health and welfare of the whole community. The injury is not to one person but to consumers, the revenue, investors or the public at large. Common examples are hoarding and profiteering, adulteration of food and medicine, smuggling, evasion of tax, foreign exchange violations, bank fraud, money laundering and corruption.
How they differ from traditional crimes. Murder, theft and rape have a visible victim who complains. A socio-economic offence usually has no single victim, and the harm is spread thin over thousands of people. The offender is often a respectable trader, official or company. The act is done inside a lawful business, in the course of ordinary work.
The Law Commission's description. The 29th Report (1966) set out their features:
- the motive is greed for money, not passion or anger;
- the victim is the community or the State;
- they are done in the course of a lawful trade or occupation;
- they are hard to detect, because the victim may not know of the harm.
The link with white collar crime. Edwin Sutherland gave the term "white collar crime" in 1939, for crime by persons of respectability and high social status in the course of their occupation. The two ideas overlap. White collar crime looks at who offends; the socio-economic label looks at what harm is done.
Evolution in India
Phase 1: the Penal Code and wartime controls. The Indian Penal Code of 1860 was built around crimes against persons and property. It had a few economic offences, such as cheating, criminal breach of trust, counterfeiting and the bribery sections 161 to 165A. Shortages during the Second World War brought controls on supply and prices, and with them black marketing and hoarding. The Prevention of Corruption Act 1947 was passed to add to the Penal Code's bribery sections.
Phase 2: the planned economy. After Independence, India chose a planned and regulated economy. Licences, permits, quotas and price controls covered trade and industry. Each control created a chance to evade it or to bribe the official in charge. The Essential Commodities Act 1955 was passed to control the supply and price of goods the people need every day.
Phase 3: recognition (1964 to 1972). The Santhanam Committee on Prevention of Corruption reported in 1964. It found corruption organised and linked to unaccounted money in trade and industry. Its report led to the Central Vigilance Commission and to amendments of 1964. These made possession of assets disproportionate to known income an offence. The Law Commission's 29th Report (1966) studied whether these offences should enter the Penal Code. Its 47th Report (1972), on their trial and punishment, recommended:
- dispensing with mens rea where the purpose of a law needs it;
- shifting the burden of proof to the accused on certain facts;
- higher minimum punishments and limits on leniency;
- quicker trials.
Phase 4: special statutes and new techniques. India chose separate laws for separate fields rather than one code. The Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act 1974 allowed preventive detention of smugglers. An amendment of 1974 added section 10C to the Essential Commodities Act, presuming a culpable mental state and leaving the accused to disprove it. The Prevention of Black-marketing and Maintenance of Supplies of Essential Commodities Act 1980 allowed detention of black marketeers. The Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 replaced the 1947 Act and the Penal Code's bribery sections.
Phase 5: the open economy. After 1991, controls were relaxed, but markets, banks and cross-border money grew. New laws met the new forms of offence:
- the Prevention of Money-laundering Act 2002, to attach and confiscate the proceeds of crime;
- the Black Money Act 2015, against undisclosed income and assets held abroad;
- the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act 2018, against offenders who flee India to escape trial;
- the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act 2018, which made the giving of a bribe and the liability of a commercial organisation offences.
The courts' role
The courts accepted that these laws need firmer rules. In State of Maharashtra v. Mayer Hans George, AIR 1965 SC 722, a passenger carried gold through Bombay without knowing of a new Reserve Bank notification. The majority convicted him, because insisting on knowledge would defeat the purpose of the law against smuggling. In Nimmagadda Prasad v. Central Bureau of Investigation, (2013) 7 SCC 466, the Court refused bail. It said economic offences "constitute a class apart", because they affect the economy of the whole country.
Assessment
The law has kept pace with each new form of offence. Enforcement has not. Investigation needs accounting and technical skill, trials take years, and the offenders can afford long litigation.
Conclusion. Socio-economic offences are greed-driven acts that harm the community as a whole, committed inside lawful business, as the Law Commission's 29th Report explained. In India they grew with wartime controls, the planned economy, and later open markets and global finance. The Santhanam Committee and the 29th and 47th Reports shaped the response. Special statutes, presumptions, preventive detention and newer laws on money laundering and fugitives followed. The courts in Mayer Hans George and Nimmagadda Prasad supported a firm approach.
The rest of the answers
The first answer is free. The rest come with the KSLU B.A. LL.B. Semester 10 solved papers.
You have read the question paper and its first answer in full. Buy the solved papers once and you can read every answer of every solved paper in this semester.
Solved papers: ₹499 Already bought it? Sign in
The question paper itself stays free, and so does the syllabus.
What should we fix or add?
Found an error in this volume? Report it and we will check it against the paper.