Andhra Pradesh Judiciary — Prelims 2012

Correct answer: A

CPC s.44A: a certified copy of a decree of a superior court of a reciprocating territory, when filed in a District Court, may be executed in India as if passed by that District Court. Statement is True.

Correct answer: B

CPC s.59: a judgment-debtor in civil prison may be released by the committing Court (or a Court to which it is subordinate) on the ground of serious illness; the State Government's release power relates to infectious/contagious disease but the option that correctly states the Court's power is (b).

Correct answer: C

CPC s.80(2): a suit for urgent/immediate relief against Government or a public officer (for acts in official capacity) may be instituted with the leave of the Court without serving the two-month notice under s.80(1).

Correct answer: B

Statement (A) is correct law: CPC s.132 / Order 5 exempts women who by custom ought not appear in public from personal appearance in court. However statement (B) is missing from the OCR (only (A) is reproduced), so the substance of (B) cannot be assessed. On the legible text, (A) is correct; flagged because (B) is illegible/absent — answer assumes only (A) is verifiable as correct.

Correct answer: D

Limitation Act, Article 120: an application to bring the legal representatives of a deceased party on record must be filed within 90 days of the death (Order 22 CPC read with the Limitation Act).

Correct answer: B

Order 23 Rule 3 CPC (as amended by Act 104 of 1976) requires the compromise to be a lawful agreement in writing AND signed by the parties; the Supreme Court has held a compromise cannot be recorded unless reduced to writing and signed by the parties.

Correct answer: C

Against an ex parte decree the defendant has alternative remedies: a regular appeal under CPC s.96(2) or an application to set aside under Order 9 Rule 13. He may opt for either, so (c).

Correct answer: D

CPC s.38: a decree may be executed either by the Court which passed it or by the Court to which it is sent for execution.

Correct answer: A

Salem Advocate Bar Association, Tamil Nadu v. Union of India (2005) upheld the constitutional validity of the CPC (Amendment) Acts of 1999 and 2002.

Correct answer: C

CPC s.152: clerical or arithmetical mistakes in judgments, decrees or orders may be corrected at any time by the Court of its own motion or on the application of any party — either (a) or (b), so (c).

Correct answer: B

Order 18 Rule 4 CPC: a Commissioner recording evidence cannot decide objections; he records the objection and the evidence subject to it, leaving the objection to be decided by the Court. Hence he cannot decide objections (b).

Correct answer: A

Order 8 Rule 6 CPC (legal set-off): both claims are ascertained sums of money legally recoverable between the same parties, so the pecuniary demand may be set off because both claims are definite.

Correct answer: B

Order 6 Rule 17 CPC (proviso): after commencement of trial no amendment of pleadings is allowed unless the party shows that despite due diligence the matter could not have been raised before the trial commenced.

Correct answer: B

Under CrPC Chapter XXXIV (s.451/452) a Magistrate ordering disposal of property decides who is entitled to possession without deciding the question of title; serious title disputes are left to the civil court.

Correct answer: B

CrPC s.468(2): the limitation for taking cognizance of an offence punishable with fine only is six months.

Correct answer: A

CrPC s.462: a finding, sentence or order is not to be set aside merely because the inquiry, trial or proceeding took place in a wrong place, unless such error has occasioned a failure of justice.

Correct answer: A

CrPC s.320: only offences listed in s.320 are compoundable (some with court permission); offences not covered by s.320 are non-compoundable.

Correct answer: D

CrPC s.164(1): any Metropolitan or Judicial Magistrate, whether or not he has jurisdiction in the case, may record a confession or statement during investigation; no Magistrate on whom police powers are conferred may do so. The broadest correct statement framed as 'Any Magistrate, whether having jurisdiction or not' is (d). (BNSS s.183 is the successor.)

Correct answer: B

IPC s.92 (and illustration): an act done in good faith for a person's benefit, even without consent, where there is no time to obtain the guardian's consent and an emergency exists, is not an offence. The surgeon is not liable.

Correct answer: B

Whether the provocation was grave and sudden (Exception 1 to IPC s.300) is essentially a question of fact to be determined on the circumstances of each case.

Correct answer: C

In theft (IPC s.378) the dishonest intention (intention to take dishonestly) must exist at the very moment of moving the property, i.e. it must precede the act of taking — unlike criminal misappropriation/breach of trust where the dishonest intention can arise after lawful possession.

Correct answer: B

Abetment (IPC s.107) is not invariably an offence; it is an offence only when the thing abetted is itself an offence or is made punishable, so it may be an offence depending on the circumstances but not always.

Correct answer: D

IPC s.159 (affray) requires a 'fight', i.e. a bilateral act in which BOTH parties are actively involved; if one party remains passive there is no affray (Jodhey v. State). On that settled interpretation none of options (a)-(c) (which each posit a passive party) is correct, so the legally correct answer is (d). Flagged: some coaching answer keys for AP-2012 mark (c) 'one of which is passive', and I could not confirm two independent sources agreeing on the official key's choice, so there is a genuine key-versus-law conflict.

Correct answer: B

The common object of the unlawful assembly (IPC s.149) was only to beat A with bats; X's concealed pistol and the shot were his individual act outside the common object and not such as the others knew was likely to be committed, so only X is liable for death and all are liable for beating — (b).

Correct answer: D

A mere omission to rescue a drowning stranger, absent a legal duty to act (IPC s.32/s.43), is no offence; X had no legal duty to save Y, so X commits no offence.

Correct answer: C

The maxim 'Restitution stops where repayment begins' derives from Leslie Ltd. v. Sheill. It applies against a minor: a minor must restore identifiable property/goods obtained by misrepresentation (equitable restitution), but cannot be made to repay money, since ordering repayment would amount to enforcing a void agreement. Hence the principle is applied against minors only.

Correct answer: B

Section 57, Indian Contract Act, 1872: where persons reciprocally promise firstly to do things which are legal and secondly to do things which are illegal, the first set of promises is a contract (valid) but the second is a void agreement.

Correct answer: C

A contract may be discharged both by performance (Ss. 37-38) and by frustration/impossibility (Section 56), among other modes. Both (a) and (b) are correct.

Correct answer: C

Novation (Section 62, Indian Contract Act) means the substitution of a new contract in place of the original one; the original contract need not be performed.

Correct answer: B

An agent (Section 182, ICA) acts on behalf of and represents the principal. An independent buyer purchases on his own account and is not an agent. A procurement agent and a person advising in matters of business can act in an agent's capacity.

Correct answer: C

A bank guarantee is an independent contract between the bank (guarantor) and the beneficiary; the bank's liability is autonomous of the underlying contract between the parties.

Correct answer: D

Section 197, Indian Contract Act: ratification may be express or may be implied from the conduct of the person on whose behalf the acts were done.

Correct answer: B

Section 5(i), Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 requires that neither party has a living spouse at the time of marriage, thereby introducing monogamy among Hindus.

Correct answer: A

Section 26 of the Hindu Marriage Act empowers the court to pass custody/maintenance/education orders only in a proceeding under the Act. In the absence of any such proceeding, jurisdiction to pass such orders lies with the Guardianship Court (under the Guardians and Wards Act), not the matrimonial District Court under HMA.

Correct answer: C

In a matrimonial proceeding for dissolution of marriage, maintenance pendente lite is grantable under Section 24 HMA and permanent alimony under Section 25 HMA. Both can be granted.

Correct answer: B

Section 3(1)(e), Hindu Succession Act, 1956: persons descended from a common ancestor but by different wives are related by half blood (by the same wife = full blood; common ancestress by different husbands = uterine blood).

Correct answer: B

Failure of one branch of the family to challenge the validity of an alienation in a suit does not bar the right of the other branch to question it; each branch has an independent right.

Correct answer: A

A bona fide family arrangement binds all members of the family, including minors and children in the womb, since it is an arrangement among members of the family for the benefit and peace of the family.

Correct answer: B

Section 3(1)(a), Hindu Succession Act, 1956: one person is an 'agnate' of another if the two are related by blood or adoption wholly through males. (Cognate = relationship not wholly through males.)

Correct answer: B

Section 19, Hindu Succession Act, 1956: where two or more heirs succeed together to the property of an intestate, they take the property as tenants-in-common and not as joint tenants.

Correct answer: A

Once a suit for partition is instituted by a coparcener, his share crystallises as on the date of institution/severance of status; subsequent births and deaths in the family do not affect the shares of the parties to the partition suit.

Correct answer: B

An easement is a right in rem: it attaches to the dominant tenement and binds the servient tenement and its successors-in-title generally, not merely a particular person.

Correct answer: C

Section 38, Indian Easements Act, 1882: an easement is extinguished when the dominant owner releases it, expressly or impliedly, to the servient owner. (Mere death of the dominant owner does not extinguish it.)

Correct answer: A

Section 118(b), Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881: until the contrary is proved, every negotiable instrument bearing a date is presumed to have been made or drawn on such date.

Correct answer: D

A perpetual injunction (Section 37/38, Specific Relief Act, 1963) is a judicial process, preventive in nature, by which a party is perpetually enjoined from doing a wrongful act/asserting a right contrary to the plaintiff's. All of the listed attributes apply.

Correct answer: C

A declaratory decree under Section 34, Specific Relief Act, 1963 is a discretionary relief; the court is not bound to grant it and may decline (e.g., where the plaintiff omits to seek further/consequential relief).

Correct answer: D

Mandatory injunctions are regulated by Section 39 of the Specific Relief Act, 1963 (Section 39 = '39' is option d), under which the court may compel performance of requisite acts to prevent the breach of an obligation.

Correct answer: A

Question asks what is INCORRECT about a temporary injunction. A temporary injunction does NOT finally settle the mutual rights of the parties for all time (that is a perpetual injunction); it only continues until a specified time or further order. Hence (a) is the incorrect statement.

Correct answer: B

Section 26, Specific Relief Act, 1963 allows rectification of an instrument where, through fraud or a MUTUAL mistake of the parties, the instrument does not truly express their intention. The mistake contemplated is a mutual mistake.

Correct answer: A

Section 124, Indian Evidence Act, 1872: no public officer shall be compelled to disclose communications made to him in official confidence when he considers public interest would suffer. The protection applies to communications made in official confidence.

Correct answer: D

Settled law: in civil proceedings the standard is preponderance/balance of probabilities, while in criminal proceedings the prosecution must prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt. Option (d) states this correctly.

Correct answer: C

Under Section 3, Indian Evidence Act, 'evidence' means and includes (1) oral/ocular evidence (statements of witnesses) and (2) documentary evidence. It covers both. Option (c).

Correct answer: A

Under Sections 18-20 of the Evidence Act, admissions by an agent are receivable against the party only where the agent is expressly or impliedly authorised to make them. Such admissions are relevant in civil matters; they do not bind under all circumstances, so (b) is wrong. (a) correctly limits admissibility to where the agent has authority. (Option (d) overstates by adding the unqualified criminal proposition.)

Correct answer: C

Section 45, Evidence Act expressly makes expert opinion relevant on, among other things, identity of finger impressions and identity/genuineness of handwriting. Both (a) and (b) are covered, so (c).

Correct answer: A

Section 121, Evidence Act protects Judges and Magistrates from being compelled to answer questions about their conduct in court. An arbitrator is not a Judge/Magistrate within Section 121, so the privilege is not available to an arbitrator. Option (a).

Correct answer: A

A fresh, unconditional acknowledgement or promise to pay a time-barred debt is supported by past consideration (Section 25(3), Indian Contract Act) and gives rise to an independent, enforceable contract. Option (a). (Note: an acknowledgement under Section 18, Limitation Act must be made BEFORE expiry to extend limitation; this question concerns acknowledgement AFTER the period, which operates as a new contract.)

Correct answer: D

Section 25, Limitation Act (acquisition of easement of light/air/way etc. by 20 years' enjoyment) provides that the 20-year period must be one 'ending within two years next before the institution of the suit' in which the claim is contested. Given the option set (12/7/4/2), the relevant statutory figure is two years. Answer (d). (Note: a general suit for disturbance of an established easement under Art. 26/Sch. is 3 years from obstruction, but that figure is not offered.)

Correct answer: D

A decree of mandatory injunction is executed under Article 135 of the Schedule to the Limitation Act, 1963, which prescribes three years from the date of the decree (or the date fixed for performance). Answer (d) 3 years.

Correct answer: D

Under Section 20, Transfer of Property Act, an unborn person for whose benefit an interest is created acquires a VESTED interest upon his birth (not within any 60/75/90-day window). None of the timed options is correct, so (d) None of the above.

Correct answer: A

The doctrine of lis pendens under Section 52, TP Act rests on grounds of public policy / necessity (expediency that nothing pending litigation should be transferred so as to affect the rights of any party). Option (a) Public policy.

Correct answer: D

A suit by the mortgagee to obtain a decree that the mortgagor be absolutely debarred of his right to redeem is a suit for foreclosure (Section 67, TP Act; Order XXXIV CPC). Option (d).

Correct answer: B

Under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, the Magistrate's power is to pass orders for the protection of the aggrieved person (protection order under Section 18, plus residence, monetary, custody and compensation orders). Options (a) and (c) describe conduct the protection order PROHIBITS the respondent from doing, not powers of the Magistrate. Option (b).

Correct answer: D

Section 2(f) of the PWDV Act, 2005 defines 'domestic relationship' broadly as a relationship between two persons who live or have lived together in a shared household through consanguinity, marriage, a relationship in the nature of marriage, adoption, or as members of a joint family. This encompasses joint and nuclear family members and the various categories listed, so (d) All the above.

Correct answer: A

Under the Registration Act/Rules, documents (other than wills) remaining unclaimed in a registration office for more than two years may be destroyed. Option (a) 2 years.

Correct answer: D

Section 2 of the AP Buildings (Lease, Rent and Eviction) Control Act, 1960 defines 'building' as any house or hut or part thereof let or to be let separately for residential or non-residential purposes, and INCLUDES the gardens, grounds, garages and outhouses appurtenant and let along with it (plus fittings/furniture). Hence all of (a)-(c) are covered: (d) All the above.

Correct answer: A

Under Section 2 of the AP Buildings (Lease, Rent and Eviction) Control Act, 1960, 'Controller' means any person not below the rank of a Tahsildar appointed by the Government to perform the functions of a Controller. Option (a).

Correct answer: A

Section 18 of the AP Buildings (Lease, Rent and Eviction) Control Act, 1960 provides that no residential building shall be converted into a non-residential building except with the written permission of the Controller. Option (a).

Correct answer: D

Section 50 of the Registration Act, 1908 provides that a duly registered document of the kinds specified shall take effect, as regards the property comprised therein, against every unregistered document relating to the same property. Hence a registered document takes precedence over an unregistered one under Section 50. Option (d) corresponds to 50.

Correct answer: C

Section 26, Indian Contract Act: every agreement in restraint of the marriage of any person, other than a minor, is void. Hence such an agreement is expressly void. Option (c).

Correct answer: B

A contract of insurance (other than life insurance) is a contract of indemnity - the insurer indemnifies the insured against the loss. Option (b).

Correct answer: B

An agent has a right to retain (lien) under Section 221, a right to remuneration/compensation, and a right to be indemnified, but no general 'right to sell' the principal's goods (that right belongs to a pledgee/unpaid seller, not an agent as such). Hence the right NOT available is (b) Right to sell.

Correct answer: D

Under Section 201, Indian Contract Act, an agency is terminated, inter alia, by the death or insanity/insolvency of EITHER the principal or the agent. Option (d) (death or insolvency of either the agent or the principal).

Correct answer: C

Under Section 71, Indian Contract Act, a finder of goods is in the position of a bailee and owes the duties of a bailee. Option (c) Bailee.

Correct answer: D

Section 73, IPC: solitary confinement shall not exceed three months 'in the whole.' The absolute maximum is therefore three months. Option (d).

Correct answer: A

The right of private defence is introduced by Section 96, IPC ('Nothing is an offence which is done in the exercise of the right of private defence'). Sections 97-106 elaborate it. The provision asked for is Section 96. Option (a).

Correct answer: B

Section 18(2) of the Limitation Act, 1963 provides that where the writing containing the acknowledgment is undated, oral evidence may be given of the time when it was signed. Oral evidence of the date is thus permissible only when the acknowledgment is undated (not when it bears a date or the date is altered).

Correct answer: B

The benefit of Section 14 of the Limitation Act (exclusion of time spent bona fide prosecuting a proceeding in a court unable to entertain it for defect of jurisdiction or like cause) is available even where, on the opening day, the plaint was not presented before the proper court. Section 14 is precisely meant to save limitation when proceedings were instituted in the wrong forum and pursued in good faith and with due diligence.

Correct answer: B

Section 4 of the Indian Easements Act, 1882: the land for the beneficial enjoyment of which the easement right exists is the dominant tenement; the land on which the liability is imposed is the servient tenement. Option (a) describes the servient tenement.

Correct answer: C

Section 74 of the Evidence Act defines public documents; Section 75 provides that all documents other than those mentioned in Section 74 are private documents. Documents not covered by Section 74 are therefore private documents.

Correct answer: D

Section 85 of the Evidence Act raises a presumption of due execution and authentication for a power-of-attorney executed before, and authenticated by, a Notary Public, or any Court, Judge, Magistrate, Indian Consul/Vice-Consul, or representative of the Central Government. A Judge, a Notary and a Magistrate all qualify, so 'All of the above'.

Correct answer: B

Section 111 of the Transfer of Property Act read with Section 113 (and the principle of waiver): a notice to quit / notice of determination of lease can be waived by the express or implied consent of the person to whom it is given. Waiver may be express or implied.

Correct answer: C

Section 125 of the Transfer of Property Act: a gift of a thing to two or more donees, of whom one does not accept it, is void as to the interest which he would have taken had he accepted.

Correct answer: D

There can be no estoppel against a statute, no estoppel on a pure point of law, and (estoppel being a rule of substantive/evidentiary fact) mere attestation of a deed does not by itself create estoppel as to its contents. The intended answer is that none of these give rise to estoppel - 'All the above'.

Correct answer: B

Section 320(4)(b) of the CrPC: when the person who would otherwise be competent to compound an offence is dead, the legal representative of the deceased may, with the consent of the Court, compound such offence. The composition is thus by the legal representative (with the Court's consent).

Correct answer: C

Section 311A CrPC empowers a Magistrate of the first class to order any person, including an accused, to give specimen signatures OR handwriting for purposes of investigation/proceeding. The order can be for either - 'Either (a) or (b)'.

Correct answer: C

Section 29(2) CrPC (as substituted by Act 25 of 2005, in force from 23.06.2006): the Court of a Magistrate of the first class may pass a sentence of imprisonment up to three years, or a fine not exceeding ten thousand rupees, or both.

Correct answer: A

Section 174(1) CrPC: on receiving information of an unnatural/suspicious death, the officer in charge of the police station shall immediately give intimation thereof to the nearest Executive Magistrate empowered to hold inquests. 'SDO' is not the statutory designation; the answer is Executive Magistrate.

Correct answer: B

Section 120A IPC defines criminal conspiracy as an agreement by two or more persons to do, or cause to be done, an illegal act or a legal act by illegal means.

Correct answer: A

Section 265B CrPC (Chapter XXIA, plea bargaining): the application for plea bargaining is filed in the court in which the offence is pending trial.

Correct answer: A

Section 4 IPC extends the operation of the Code to extra-territorial offences (offences committed by citizens of India outside India and by any person on a ship/aircraft registered in India).

Correct answer: B

Wrongful confinement is defined in Section 340 IPC (Section 339 defines wrongful restraint; Sections 342-348 deal with punishment for wrongful confinement).

Correct answer: A

Section 153A IPC penalises promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony.

Correct answer: B

Illustration to Section 109/108 IPC: where the actual doer is a child below seven years (incapable of committing an offence under Section 82), the abettor is deemed to have done the act himself. X who instigated the act with intent to murder is liable as if he committed the murder and is subject to the punishment for murder (death/life). This is the standard illustration under abetment provisions (Section 108 Expl./Illustration).

Correct answer: C

Under Section 457/458 CrPC, where the person entitled to possession is unknown/absent, a proclamation is issued requiring claims within six months. The property may be sold within that six-month proclamation period (and perishable property subject to speedy and natural decay may be sold even sooner). Among the options the proclamation period referenced is six months.

Correct answer: B

Section 311 CrPC empowers the court to summon or recall any witness at any stage of any inquiry, trial or other proceeding - i.e. even after the evidence of both sides has been closed - if the evidence appears essential to the just decision of the case.

Correct answer: D

Section 205 CrPC empowers the Magistrate, whenever he issues summons, to dispense with the personal attendance of the accused and permit him to appear by his pleader.

Correct answer: B

Abetment is not invariably punishable as an offence; whether the abettor is liable depends on the circumstances (e.g., Sections 108, 116 IPC - abetment of an offence is punishable, but abetment may also fail to constitute an offence in certain circumstances). Hence 'may be an offence depending on the circumstances but not always'. (Identical to Q22.)

Correct answer: B

Proviso to Section 167(2) CrPC: where investigation is not completed within 90/60 days, the accused in custody is entitled to be released on default bail on furnishing bail - but only on making an application for such release and being prepared to furnish bail (the right is not automatic without an application).

Correct answer: C

Proviso to Section 202(2) CrPC: if it appears to the Magistrate that the offence complained of is triable exclusively by the Court of Session, he shall call upon the complainant to produce all his witnesses and examine them on oath. This corresponds to 'Examine the complainant and all his witnesses'.

Correct answer: A

Section 164 CrPC: a confession or statement may be recorded by a Magistrate in the course of an investigation, or at any time afterwards before the commencement of the inquiry or trial.