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History of Courts
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
BLS LLB 5 Years · Sem 3
2021-22 Examination
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BLS LLB 5 Years Sem 3 History of Courts 2021-22 Question Paper with Solutions
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First published on munotes.in on 10 August 2026.
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Model answers written and edited by the munotes.in editorial desk.
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The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by the University of Mumbai at the 2021-22 examination.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as the University of Mumbai set it at the 2021-22 examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2021-22 examination, reproduced as the University of Mumbai set them, in the order it set them. Nothing has been reworded, added or left out. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Total marks 30 · 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.
SECTION I
MCQ QUESTIONS
20 questions, 1 1/2 marks each
1.The Indian Law Reports Act 1875 made it mandatory for all the High Courts to start: a) Law reporting b) Law reforms c) Law Commission d) Law editing
Answer
Answer: (a) Law reporting.
The Indian Law Reports Act, 1875 required the judgments of the High Courts to be published in an authorised series, the Indian Law Reports, and provided that no court should be bound to hear cited, as an authority, any report of a High Court decision other than a report published under the authority of the Government.
Why the others are wrong. (b) Law reforms is the work of the Law Commissions, not of this Act. (c) Law Commission is a body, not something a High Court starts, and the Commissions were created by the Charter Act of 1833. (d) Law editing is not a legal expression at all.
2.After the battle of Plassey in 1757, the East India Company acquired the political authority in Bengal through: a) Diwani rights b) Fauzdari Rights c) Ownership Rights d) Possessory Rights
Answer
Answer: (a) Diwani rights.
The Diwani was the right to collect the revenue and administer civil justice in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. It is the grant on which the Company's whole legal position in India rested, and it is what made it responsible for the courts that Warren Hastings built from 1772.
Why the others are wrong. (b) Fauzdari (Nizamat) rights, the criminal jurisdiction, were not granted; they remained nominally with the Nawab, which is exactly why the Faujdari Adalats were his courts in form and why Cornwallis had to take criminal justice over in 1790. (c) Ownership rights and (d) possessory rights are not terms used of the Company's authority at all; the Company was Diwan, an officeholder under the Mughal Emperor, not an owner.
The question's date is wrong. The Diwani was not acquired after Plassey in 1757. It was granted by the Emperor Shah Alam II by the Treaty of Allahabad in 1765, after the battle of Buxar (1764). What followed Plassey in 1757 was the Company's military and political ascendancy in Bengal and the installation of Mir Jafar as Nawab, not any formal grant of authority. Answer (a), which is plainly the option intended, and if the paper allowed you to say so, note that the date should be 1765.
3.The main objective of the Indian Bar Councils Act 1926 was: a) to provide for the constitutions of Bar Councils b) to unify the various grades of legal practitioners c) confer powers to the Bar Councils d) to give more powers to the legal practitioners
Answer
Answer: (b) to unify the various grades of legal practitioners.
The Act was passed on the recommendations of the Indian Bar Committee, 1923 (the Chamier Committee), and its central purpose was to begin the unification of a profession split into grades: advocates, vakils, pleaders, mukhtars, attorneys and barristers. It abolished the distinction between advocates and vakils in the High Courts and brought them onto a single roll.
Why the others are wrong. (a) and (c) describe the Act's machinery, the establishment of a Bar Council for each High Court and the powers given to it, not its objective; the machinery existed to serve the object of unification. (d) is too vague and is not what the Act did: it gave powers to the Bar Councils, that is to the profession as a body, not to individual practitioners.
4.The writ of mandamus cannot be granted against: a) Municipal Officers b) President of India c) Prime Minister d) Chief Minister
Answer
Answer: (b) President of India.
Article 361 of the Constitution provides that the President and the Governors of States are not answerable to any court for the exercise and performance of the powers and duties of their office, and that no process shall issue from any court against them while in office. Mandamus therefore cannot be granted against the President.
Why the others are wrong. (a) Municipal officers are public authorities charged with public duties and are among the commonest respondents to mandamus. (c) The Prime Minister and (d) a Chief Minister enjoy no such immunity: they are ministers, not the President or a Governor, and mandamus lies against them in respect of their public duties. This is the distinction the question is really testing.
5.Lex loci means: a) Law is supreme b) Law is universal c) Law of land d) Law of the King
Answer
Answer: (c) Law of land.
Lex loci is Latin for the law of the place, that is the law in force in the territory where a person is or where a transaction takes place.
Why the others are wrong. (a) "Law is supreme" describes the Rule of Law, not lex loci. (b) "Law is universal" describes no legal expression, and is in fact the opposite of lex loci, which is law local to a place. (d) "Law of the King" would be lex regis; the point of lex loci is that it is the law of the place, whoever the ruler is.
6.Audi alterempartem is related to: a) Principle of separation of power b) Principles of equal justice c) Principles of natural justice d) Principles of fair justice
Answer
Answer: (c) Principles of natural justice.
Audi alteram partem means "hear the other side", and it is one of the two principles of natural justice: no man may be condemned unheard. The party affected must have notice of the case against him, be given the material relied on, and have a fair opportunity to answer it.
Why the others are wrong. (a) Separation of powers is Montesquieu's doctrine about the distribution of governmental functions, and has nothing to do with procedure in a particular case. (b) "Equal justice" and (d) "fair justice" are not recognised legal doctrines; they are loose phrases, and the examiner has put them there precisely to see whether you know the technical name.
7.Power of Supreme Court to permit the writ petition is related to: a) Article 145 b) Article 139 c) Article 143 d) Article 141
Answer
Answer: (b) Article 139.
Article 139 empowers Parliament to confer on the Supreme Court, by law, the power to issue directions, orders or writs, including habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, quo warranto and certiorari, for purposes other than those mentioned in Article 32(2). It is the only one of the four options that concerns writs at all.
Why the others are wrong. (a) Article 145 empowers the Supreme Court to make rules regulating its practice and procedure. (c) Article 143 is the advisory jurisdiction, under which the President may refer a question of law or fact of public importance. (d) Article 141 provides that the law declared by the Supreme Court is binding on all courts.
8.Writ of quo warranto can be issued against: a) Private servant b) Retired public servant c) Public officer d) Any person
Answer
Answer: (c) Public officer.
Quo warranto means "by what authority". It is issued against a person holding a public office, calling on him to show by what authority he holds it, and ousting him if the holding is unlawful.
Why the others are wrong. (a) A private servant holds no public office; the writ does not touch private employment or offices in private bodies. (b) A retired public servant is no longer in possession of the office, and the writ requires the respondent to be in actual possession; there would be nothing to oust him from. (d) "Any person" is too wide: the writ lies only against the holder of a public office, and this option confuses who may be proceeded against with who may apply.
9.Who is responsible for the invention of the word 'Codification'? a) Sir Robert Chambers b) Sir John Shore c) Bentham d) Sir Henry Russell
Answer
Answer: (c) Bentham.
Jeremy Bentham (1748 to 1832), the English utilitarian philosopher and legal reformer, coined the word "codification", and he is the intellectual source of the whole programme: that law should be written, complete and knowable in advance, in a systematic code, rather than discovered case by case after the event.
Why the others are wrong. (a) Sir Robert Chambers was a puisne judge of the Supreme Court at Calcutta from 1774 and later its Chief Justice; he drew up a plan for the codification of Indian law, but did not invent the word. (b) Sir John Shore was Governor-General from 1793 to 1798, Cornwallis's successor, and is associated with the Permanent Settlement debate, not with codification. (d) Sir Henry Russell was a judge of the Supreme Court at Calcutta. All three are plausible-sounding Indian names put there to catch a candidate who has not read about Bentham.
10.Right to property is a legal right mentioned in which article of the constitution: a) Article 330(A) b) Article 229(3) c) Article 229(3) d) Article 217 (1) (b)
Answer
No option offered is correct. The right to property is a legal right under Article 300A, which provides that no person shall be deprived of his property save by authority of law. That article does not appear among the four choices.
The most likely intended option is (a) Article 330(A), which appears to be a misprint for Article 300A. If you must choose, choose (a) and, if the paper allows any remark, write Article 300A.
Why the printed options are wrong.
- (a) Article 330 provides for the reservation of seats in the House of the People for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. There is no Article 330(A).
- (b) and (c) Article 229(3) are the same option printed twice, another fault in the paper. Article 229(3) charges the administrative expenses of a High Court on the Consolidated Fund of the State.
- (d) Article 217(1)(b) is the provision for the removal of a judge of a High Court.
11.From which source India got the concept of Single order of the court: a) The Government of India Act 1919 b) The Government Of India Act 1935 c) The Government of India Act 1858 d) Charter Act of 1833
Answer
Answer: (b) The Government of India Act 1935.
The expression, awkwardly worded, means the single integrated judiciary: one hierarchy of courts, headed by an apex court, administering both Union and State law, in place of separate federal and state court systems. India took that model from the Government of India Act, 1935, which created a Federal Court above the existing High Courts and the subordinate courts, so that a single chain ran from the district court to the apex.
Why the others are wrong. (a) The Act of 1919 introduced dyarchy in the provinces and a bicameral central legislature; it made no change in the constitution of the courts. (c) The Act of 1858 transferred the government of India from the Company to the Crown, which was constitutionally momentous but created no court. (d) The Charter Act of 1833 created a single legislature and provided for the Law Commission; it is the source of codification, not of the court structure.
12.Which doctrine is the binding force of precedents: a) Doctrine of stare decisis b) Doctrine of obiter dicta c) Separation of Powers d) Independence of Judiciary
Answer
Answer: (a) Doctrine of stare decisis.
Stare decisis, short for stare decisis et non quieta movere, "to stand by decided matters and not to disturb settled points", is the doctrine that a court should follow the principle laid down in a previous decision in a later case raising the same point, and that a decision of a higher court binds the courts below it.
Why the others are wrong. (b) Obiter dicta are observations made by the way and not necessary to the decision; they are of persuasive value only and are precisely what does not bind. The option is there to test whether you know that it is the ratio decidendi, and not the obiter, that binds. (c) Separation of powers and (d) independence of the judiciary are doctrines about the structure of government, not about the authority of decisions.
13.Name the first judge of the Admiralty Court at Madras: a) John Dolben b) John Morris c) John Biggs d) John Maxwell
Answer
Answer: (c) John Biggs.
Sir John Biggs, a doctor of civil law sent out from England, was appointed Judge-Advocate of the Admiralty Court at Madras on its establishment in 1686, and is the first judge of that court. His appointment is significant beyond the name: he is the first legally trained judge to sit on an Indian bench, in a system until then administered entirely by merchants.
Why the others are wrong. (a) John Dolben was appointed Judge-Advocate later, in 1692, after Biggs's death, and was afterwards dismissed for corruption; he is the distractor the question is built around. (b) John Morris and (d) John Maxwell are simply plausible English names.
14.The salaries, allowances and pensions of the judges of the Supreme Court are concerned with: a) Article 229(3) b) Article 217 (1) (b) c) Article 124(2) d) Article 146
Answer
No option offered is correct for the judges of the Supreme Court. The salaries, allowances and pensions of Supreme Court judges are governed by Article 125, which provides that they shall be as determined by Parliament by law, and that they shall not be varied to a judge's disadvantage after appointment. Article 125 does not appear among the choices.
The intended option is (d) Article 146(3), and the reason is visible in the wording. Article 146(3) provides that the administrative expenses of the Supreme Court, "including all salaries, allowances and pensions payable to or in respect of the officers and servants of the Court", shall be charged upon the Consolidated Fund of India. The examiner has evidently taken the phrase "salaries, allowances and pensions" from that article, but it governs the Court's officers and servants, not its judges. Choose (d) if you must choose, and know that the answer for judges is Article 125.
Why the other options are wrong.
- (a) Article 229(3) is the equivalent of 146(3) for a High Court: the administrative expenses of a High Court, including the salaries of its officers and servants, charged on the Consolidated Fund of the State.
- (b) Article 217(1)(b) is the provision for the removal of a judge of a High Court.
- (c) Article 124(2) is the appointment of Supreme Court judges and their tenure until the age of 65.
15.Dicey's concept that "all men are equal before law" relates to: a) Rule of Law b) Rule of equity c) Gender equality d) Principles of natural justice
Answer
Answer: (a) Rule of Law.
Equality before the law is the second of the three principles into which A. V. Dicey analysed the Rule of Law in Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (1885): that every man, whatever his rank or condition, is subject to the ordinary law of the realm and amenable to the jurisdiction of the ordinary tribunals.
Why the others are wrong. (b) "Rule of equity" is not a doctrine of Dicey's; equity is a body of principles administered historically by the Court of Chancery, and has nothing to do with this. (c) Gender equality is a modern constitutional concern, not Dicey's proposition, which is about rank and office and above all about officials having no exemption. (d) Natural justice is about procedure in a particular case, hearing the other side and the rule against bias, not about the general subjection of all persons to one law.
16.Tenure of the High Court judge is until: a) his death b) he decides to retire c) 62 years of age d) 65 years of age
Answer
Answer: (c) 62 years of age.
Under Article 217(1) of the Constitution, a judge of a High Court holds office until he attains the age of sixty-two years.
Why the others are wrong. (a) Until death is the tenure of a judge in some other systems, notably the federal judiciary of the United States, where judges hold office during good behaviour for life; it is not the Indian rule. (b) Until he decides to retire is wrong because a judge may resign by writing to the President, but his tenure is not open-ended: it ends at 62 whether he wishes it or not. (d) 65 years is the age for a judge of the Supreme Court under Article 124(2), and is the distractor the question is built around.
17.Which is the first principle of Rule of law in India: a) Principles of natural justice b) Principles of law and order c) Principles of morality d) Absence of arbitrary power
Answer
Answer: (d) Absence of arbitrary power.
The first of Dicey's three principles is the supremacy of law, or the absence of arbitrary power: no man may be punished except for a distinct breach of law established in the ordinary manner before the ordinary courts, and wide discretionary authority in the hands of government is the negation of the Rule of Law.
Why the others are wrong. (a) Natural justice is a set of rules of fair procedure, related to the Rule of Law but not one of its three principles. (b) "Law and order" is a matter of policing and public administration, and is often invoked against the Rule of Law rather than as part of it. (c) Morality is not a principle of the Rule of Law at all; the doctrine is about legality, not about the moral content of the law.
18.Select the feature that does not support the federal character of Indian Constitution: a) Single citizenship b) Supremacy of the constitution c) Authority of courts d) Distribution of powers between centre and state
Answer
Answer: (a) Single citizenship.
India has one citizenship for the whole country: a person is a citizen of India and not of any State, and he enjoys the same rights everywhere. That is a unitary feature. A true federation, such as the United States or Switzerland, gives dual citizenship, of the federation and of the constituent unit.
Why the others are federal features. (b) Supremacy of the Constitution: both the Union and the States derive their powers from it and neither can override it, which is essential to a federation. (c) Authority of the courts, that is an independent judiciary with power to decide disputes between the Union and the States (Article 131) and to interpret the distribution of powers, is the umpire every federation must have. (d) Distribution of powers between the Centre and the States, in the three lists of the Seventh Schedule, is the defining federal feature.
19.Raja Nandkumar was sentenced to death because of: a) Sedition b) Conspiracy c) Forgery d) Murder
Answer
Answer: (c) Forgery.
Maharaja Nandkumar was indicted for forging a bond, alleged to have been executed in 1770 in connection with the estate of Bulaki Das. He was tried in May 1775 before Chief Justice Sir Elijah Impey and the puisne judges of the Supreme Court at Calcutta, with an English jury, under the English forgery statute which made forgery a capital felony, was convicted, and was hanged on 5 August 1775.
Why the others are wrong. (b) Conspiracy is the closest distractor and is nearly right: Nandkumar was first charged with conspiracy, along with Fowke and Radhacharan, on the complaint of Mohan Prasad, and that proceeding was still pending when the forgery indictment was brought. But he was not sentenced to death for conspiracy; he was hanged for forgery. (a) Sedition and (d) murder were never charged.
20.The first chairman of law commission after independence was: a) Mr Macaulay b) Sarojini Naidu c) Jawaharlal Nehru d) M C Setalvad
Answer
Answer: (d) M C Setalvad.
Shri M. C. Setalvad, the first Attorney-General of India, was chairman of the First Law Commission of independent India, constituted in 1955. Its most celebrated product is the Fourteenth Report (1958) on the Reform of Judicial Administration, the foundation of the Advocates Act, 1961 and of much later reform of the courts and of legal education.
Why the others are wrong. (a) Macaulay was chairman of the First Law Commission of 1834, under the Charter Act of 1833, more than a century before independence; he is the distractor the question is built around, and the words "after independence" are what separate the two. (b) Sarojini Naidu was a poet and Congress leader and the first woman Governor of an Indian State; she held no law reform office. (c) Jawaharlal Nehru was Prime Minister, and the Commission is appointed by the Government, not chaired by its head.
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This volume prints the 2021-22 History of Courts paper set by the University of Mumbai for BLS LLB 5 Years Sem 3, with a model answer to each of its 20 questions.
Written and edited by the munotes.in editorial desk. Published by munotes.in, Mumbai.
10 August 2026.
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