Mumbai University Solved Question Papers
Jurisprudence and Legal Theory
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
LLB 3 years · Sem 4
Apr 2011 Examination
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LLB 3 years Sem 4 Jurisprudence and Legal Theory Apr 2011 Question Paper with Solutions
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First published on munotes.in on 24 October 2026.
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Model answers written and edited by the munotes.in editorial desk.
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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 the University of Mumbai at the Apr 2011 examination.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as the University of Mumbai set it at the Apr 2011 examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the Apr 2011 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.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 100 · 25 questions answered
Instructions printed on the paper
- N.B: (1) Answer all questions in the answer-book and if required in additional answer-books. (2) There are no different sections.
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.
Q.1
Q.1: Answer all ten questions
20 Marks - 2 marks each
(a)What is ratio decidendi?[2]
Answer
The ratio decidendi, literally "the reason for the decision", is the principle of law on which a court decides a case. It is the part of a judgment that binds later courts as a precedent.
Its features.
- It is the rule of law necessary to the decision, applied to the material facts as the court found them.
- It is distinct from obiter dicta, remarks made by the way that are not necessary to the decision. Obiter only persuades.
- Under Article 141, the ratio of a Supreme Court decision binds all courts in India.
Example. A court holds that an offer is not accepted by silence, and remarks in passing on offers made by post. Only the first is the ratio.
How to find it. Goodhart's test looks to the material facts the judge treated as important and the decision based on them. Wambaugh's reversal test asks whether the decision would have been different if the proposition were reversed; if so, it is part of the ratio.
Indian authority. In State of Orissa v. Sudhansu Sekhar Misra, AIR 1968 SC 647, the dispute was about appointments to the Orissa judicial service. The High Court had relied on general remarks in two earlier Supreme Court judgments. The Supreme Court held that a decision is an authority only for what it actually decides. What is essential is its ratio, not every observation found in it.
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