Mumbai University Solved Question Papers
Law and Social Transformation of India
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
LLM · Foundation Course
2019 Examination
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LLM Foundation Course Law and Social Transformation of India 2019 Question Paper with Solutions
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First published on munotes.in on 12 August 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 2019 examination.
The answers in this volume state the law as it stands today, not as it stood when the paper was set, and in this subject that reaches almost every question. The Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act were replaced on 1 July 2024 by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, so where a question asks about a section of the old Code by number, the answer gives that section and its successor. Section 89 of the Code of Civil Procedure was substituted by the Mediation Act, 2023. The reservation of one third of the seats in the Lok Sabha and the State assemblies for women was notified into force on 16 April 2026 and operates after the next census and delimitation. And on 1 August 2024 seven judges held that a State may sub-classify within the Scheduled Castes.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as the University of Mumbai set it at the 2019 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 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 · 11 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
Attempt any four questions, all questions carry equal marks, cite relevant case laws wherever necessary
any four of seven · 100 Marks
1)Analytically write on various sections of Indian Penal Code which deals to penalize the culprit for the heinous offences against women with such crimes. Discuss the provisions of The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, for safeguarding women from new forms of offensive activities.[25]
Answer
For full marks, cover: the sections of the Indian Penal Code section by section with their successors in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita; the Justice Verma Committee and what it recommended; every new offence created in 2013 and the changes to Section 375; the 2018 amendment; the procedural and evidentiary changes; and a critical assessment.
The offences under the Indian Penal Code, with their successors. The Code was replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 on 1 July 2024, so both numbers must be known.
Rape. Section 375 defined and Section 376 punished rape; now Sections 63 and 64 of the Sanhita. Aggravated forms, rape by a police officer, public servant, member of the armed forces, staff of a jail, remand home or hospital, rape of a woman incapable of giving consent, of a pregnant woman, of a woman under sixteen, and repeated offences, were Section 376(2), now Section 64(2). Section 376A (injury causing death or a persistent vegetative state) is Section 66; Section 376AB (rape of a girl below twelve) is Section 65(2); Section 376B (intercourse by a husband during separation) is Section 67; Section 376C (by a person in authority) is Section 68; Section 376D (gang rape) is Section 70; Section 376E (repeat offenders) is Section 71.
Outraging modesty and related offences. Section 354 (assault or criminal force to outrage modesty) is Section 74; Section 354A sexual harassment is Section 75; 354B assault with intent to disrobe is Section 76; 354C voyeurism and 354D stalking are Sections 77 and 78; Section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult modesty) is Section 79.
Acid attack. Sections 326A and 326B, inserted in 2013, are Sections 124(1) and 124(2).
Dowry and cruelty. Section 304B dowry death is Section 80; Section 498A cruelty by husband or relatives is Section 85 with the definition in Section 86; Section 306 abetment of suicide is Section 108.
Marriage offences. Section 366 kidnapping to compel marriage is Section 87; Section 493 cohabitation by deceit is Section 81; Sections 494 and 495 bigamy are Sections 82(1) and 82(2); Section 366B importation of a girl is Section 141; Section 370 trafficking is Section 143 and Section 370A exploitation of a trafficked person is Section 144; Section 372 and 373 (selling and buying a minor for prostitution) are Sections 98 and 99. Section 312 causing miscarriage is Section 88; Section 313 causing miscarriage without consent is Section 89. Section 366A, procuration of a minor girl, is Section 96.
New in the Sanhita. Section 69 punishes sexual intercourse by employing deceitful means, including a false promise of marriage, employment or promotion, or by concealing identity; there was no such distinct offence in the old Code, where the question was dealt with under consent in Section 375.
The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013.
Background. The Act followed the gang rape and murder of a young woman in Delhi in December 2012 and the report of the Justice J.S. Verma Committee, constituted with Justice Leila Seth and Gopal Subramanium, which reported in twenty-nine days in January 2013. Its central recommendations were the widening of the definition of rape, the creation of offences for the conduct that precedes rape, the punishment of police inaction, the review of the armed forces' immunity, and the rejection of the death penalty and of chemical castration as general remedies. Parliament accepted most and rejected some, notably the recommendations on marital rape and on sanction for prosecution of armed forces personnel.
What the Act did.
It redefined rape. Section 375 was rewritten to cover penetration of the vagina, mouth, urethra or anus by the penis or by any object or part of the body, manipulation of the body to cause penetration, and the application of the mouth, and to make it clear that the woman's absence of physical resistance is not consent. The Explanation defined consent as an unequivocal voluntary agreement. The age of consent was raised to eighteen. The definition remained gender-specific as to the perpetrator, and Exception 2 preserving marital immunity was retained.
It created new offences for new forms of harm, which is the phrase the question uses: acid attack (Sections 326A and 326B), sexual harassment (354A), assault with intent to disrobe (354B), voyeurism (354C) and stalking (354D, including monitoring the use of the internet or electronic communication).
It punished official inaction and misconduct. Section 166A punishes a public servant who fails to record information about the offences specified, and Section 166B punishes a hospital that refuses treatment to a victim of acid attack or sexual assault, treatment being made free and mandatory.
It changed procedure and evidence. The statement of a victim to be recorded by a woman police officer at her residence or a place of her choice; recording by a Magistrate under Section 164 with the assistance of an interpreter or special educator for a disabled victim, and videography of the statement; trial in camera under Section 327 and completion of the trial within two months under the proviso to Section 309; and, in the Evidence Act, Section 53A, which makes evidence of the victim's character or previous sexual experience irrelevant on the issue of consent, and the amended Section 114A, which presumes the absence of consent in the aggravated categories once intercourse is proved and the woman states she did not consent.
The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018, following the Kathua and Unnao cases, raised the minimum sentence for rape to ten years, created Section 376AB (rape of a girl below twelve, minimum twenty years extending to death), Section 376DA and 376DB (gang rape of a girl below sixteen and below twelve), barred anticipatory bail in those cases, and required completion of investigation and trial within two months each.
Critical assessment.
Where it succeeded. The definition of rape is now conduct-based rather than confined to a single act; conduct that used to be dismissed as eve-teasing is a distinct offence with a defined punishment; the police officer who refuses a first information report can himself be prosecuted; and the character of the victim has been made legally irrelevant.
Where it did not. Marital rape remains excepted, and the challenge is pending in the Supreme Court after the split in RIT Foundation v. Union of India (2022). The law is gender-specific, so a male or transgender victim of the same conduct has no equivalent remedy. The 2018 escalation of minimum sentences and the death penalty for the rape of a child have been criticised on the evidence: severity without certainty does not deter, and a mandatory minimum can reduce reporting where the offender is a family member and can encourage the offender to kill the victim. And the procedural time limits are almost universally breached, so the reform that would matter most, an investigation and trial that actually finish, has not been delivered.
Conclusion. The Indian Penal Code, and now the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, punishes offences against women through a graded scheme running from insult to modesty to rape causing death, and the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 is the most important single reform in it: it widened the central offence, named the new forms of harm, and for the first time punished the officials who fail the victim. Its limits are the two Parliament chose, the marital rape exception and the gender specificity, and the one it could not legislate away, the gap between the statutory timeline and the working of the trial courts.
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