Passage (Q.1-Q.4): Section 2 of the Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act, 1939 states nine grounds on which a Muslim wife can obtain a decree of divorce: (a) Absence of husband - when the whereabouts of the husband are not known from the past four years. Dissolution of marriage decree on this ground will take effect after six months from the date of such decree is passed, and during that period if the husband appears in person or through an authorized agent, the court if satisfied from same may set aside the said decree. (b) Failure to maintain - If a husband fails to provide maintenance (includes a regular obligatory expense but excludes an extravagant expense) to his wife for two years. There is no defence available before husband on the ground of poverty, failing health or unemployment. (c) Imprisonment of a husband - If the husband is imprisoned for seven years or more. (d) Failure to perform marital duties - If without any reasonable cause, the husband is unable to perform his marital obligations for three years. (e) Impotency of husband - husband was impotent at the time of marriage and continues to be so. If the husband within one year from the date of the order obtained by wife for dissolution of marriage on the grounds of impotency on application satisfies the Court that he ceased to be impotent, then no decree shall be passed on this ground. (f) Insanity, leprosy or venereal disease - If the husband is insane or suffering from leprosy, or any venereal disease from a period of two years, judicial divorce by wife can be claimed on the same ground. (g) Repudiation of marriage by wife - If a girl is married before the age of 15 years by her father or guardian, then under Muslim law she has been provided with a right to repudiate such marriage after attaining the age of 18 years provided that the marriage is not consummated. She is entitled to a decree of divorce for same. (h) Grounds of dissolution recognized by the Mohammedan Law - Wife is also entitled to obtain a divorce on the ground recognised valid under the law. (i) Cruelty by husband - If the husband treats his wife with cruelty, then she can approach the Court and claim for a decree of judicial separation on the same ground.
1. In accordance with Islamic Law, F recently married G. After a few months, they began to have problems, and they both began to abuse one another. When F got fed up of G one fine day,he left the house without returning for the next four hours. Agitated, G filed a divorce petition against her husband F on the grounds provided under the Dissolution of the Muslim Marriage Act of 1939.Decide, if the claim if valid?
2. Q had a fine job and a great pay. P made the decision to marry him as a result, and she will now live a life of luxury. It was soon discovered that the company Q was working for was unlicensed and illegal. This led to the closure of the business, which resulted in job losses for every employee. Similar to this, Q lost his job and was no longer able to give P all the luxuries as before. P submitted a divorce petition citing P's failure to pay maintenance. Decide if the claim is maintainable?.
3. V got married to N. Few days later, V’s mother died. V had no one to look after him from childhood, and he solely lived with his mother, as a result of which he became very connected to her. He was in shock for a few days after she died. He didn't eat or go to work for over a week. He used to get irritated over insignificant things and would yell at his wife. Frustrated with V's actions, his wife filed for divorce on the grounds of insanity within 1 month of marriage. Comment on N’s action.
4. Choose the option that is not in line with the author’s contention as mentioned in the passage.
Passage (Q.5-Q.8): An agreement may be uncertain either because the terms in it are ambiguous or vague or because it is incomplete. The general rule is that if the terms of an agreement are vague or indefinite and which cannot be ascertained with reasonable certainty, then there is no contract enforceable by law. Section 29 provides the meaning of an agreement that should be clear on the face of it, but the effect can be provided to the contract if its meaning is found with reasonable clearness. If this is not possible then the contract would not be enforceable. Mere difficulty in interpretation will not be considered as vague. A contract out of which more than one meaning when constructed, can produce in its application more than one result, will not be void for uncertainty. A contract will be void for uncertainty only if it’s essential terms are uncertain or incomplete, unless the uncertain part being not essential is severed, leaving the balance of the agreement intact. To ascertain what is essential and what is not, one must look into the intention of the parties. Also, there will not be a binding contract where the language is obscure and incapable of any definite meaning. An agreement that provides for the future fixation of price by the parties or by a third party and is capable of being made certain is valid under Section 29. Such a contract will not be void for uncertainty.
5. H and W reached an agreement in which H agreed to sell 20 different types of grains to W at the current market price. Only ten types of grains were available to him at the time, and the rest would be ready in a couple of weeks. As a result, they mutually agreed that if the market price of grains changed after a few weeks, the products would be sold at that price. Is this considered a certain contract? Respond under Section 29 of the Indian Contract Act.
6. G and F made an agreement in which G would trade stationery with F. In this case, F requested twenty various paint colours, six different types of pencils, nine different brands of pens, and seven dozen erasers. This was a weekly inventory. The same thing would happen every week for the next six months. The prices would be agreed upon by both parties. Furthermore, F ensured that if he purchased stock worth more than ten thousand rupees at any time, he would receive a 7.5% discount on the transaction. F sued G for breach of contract when he was unable to furnish the stock. G declared the contract null and void because the product prices were difficult and confusing to interpret. Comment on the veracity of G's assertions.
7. W was supposed to travel to another country for a conference. It was significant for his career because many prominent speakers would be present. He kept fish in an aquarium at home. He was seeking for someone to look after his fish while he was away for sometime. He realized at that point that his neighbour might be able to assist him. As a result, he went to R and asked him to look after the fish till he returned. He also promised to compensate him if and when he returned. Comment on the contract's certainty.
8. Y was invited to her friend's sister's engagement ceremony. She was expected to dress in green or red. Because she possessed neither, she requested one of her friends to lend her the garment in exchange for a thousand rupees. Z, her friend, consented to lend her the dress. She provided her six options from which she might choose any one of them. Can you regard the contract between Y and Z to be uncertain because it is not for a particular dress?
Passage (Q.9-Q.12): The word ‘bailment’, is derived from ‘bailer’, a French word which means ‘to deliver’. Bailment has been defined under the Section 148 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872, according to which Bailment involves the delivery of goods from one person to another for a specific purpose and upon a contract, when the purpose is fulfilled, the good has to be returned or dealt with on the direction of the person who has delivered the goods. There are generally two parties to the contract of Bailment. The person who is the owner and delivers the good is called ‘bailor’ while the person to whom the goods are delivered is called ‘bailee’. Essential Features:
(i) Delivery of Possession: There must be a delivery of goods, which means, delivery of possession of the goods by the bailer to the bailee to fulfil the purpose of bailment. Possession refers to exercising control over the goods and excluding any other person to do the same. Section 149 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 talks about the same.
(ii) Delivery upon Contract: There must be a contract between the bailor and the bailee for such transfer of goods and its return. If there is no contract, there cannot be bailment. Moreover, the contract can either be expressed or implied.
(iii) Delivery must be for some purpose: It is essential that there must be a purpose for which the delivery of the goods takes place. If after the completion of the purpose of bailment the good is not accounted for, then bailment cannot arise. This is an important feature as it separates it from other relations like agency, etc.
(iv) Return of goods: After the completion of the purpose, the goods must be delivered to the bailor or dealt with as per his instructions. If he is not bound to return the goods or dispose them off, then there is no bailment. Even if there is an agreement to return an equivalent and not the same goods, it will not amount to bailment. Bailment is a type of a special contract, so all essential elements of a valid contract like consent, competency, etc are required for it to be valid.
9. W was scheduled to perform at a music concert in Amritsar. He had several plants in his balcony that required sunlight and water on a regular basis. He had a decent friendship with his neighbour J, so he requested him to care of his plants for four days. He further stated that he did not want the plants returned, but rather that they did not die. Comment on whether any bailment activity occurred in relation to the passage.
10. S travelled to Jaipur to attend her friend's wedding ceremonies, which were expected to last two weeks. She chose to stay at a hotel near to the event venue. She kept some of her dresses in the hotel and others at the event venue. In the midst of the chaos and excitement, she realized that the clothes she had kept at the venue were lost. She forgot to inform her friend that she had kept the dresses in her room. Seeing the mismanagement at the wedding and the loss of her clothes, she filed a claim against her friend under the bailment contract.What do you think of S's accusations?
11. At ten in the evening, R was supposed to catch her flight. She was due to leave after attending some business in the city. She consequently made the decision to leave her luggage at F's residence without informing her, as it was close to the airport. When she called F three hours before her flight, she learned that F was not at home and had gone to spend the weekend at her aunt's house. R had to miss the flight as a result and picked up the luggage the following Monday. As a result, she demanded reimbursement for her plane tickets, asserting a breach of the bailment contract. Decide.
12. W was an extremely well-known makeup artist. She served some well-known celebrities as clients. She consequently used the highest quality, branded makeup. The eye shadow palette was required by one of her friends, N. W threw the palette as she did not need it.. The palette was then picked by N who thought of returning it to W after using it for some purpose. Unfortunately, N lost it on the way. Comment on the existence of the bailment contract.
Passage (Q.13-Q.16): The Calcutta High Court observed that a magistrate cannot dismiss an application under Section 156(3) of Criminal Procedure Code merely on the ground of delay in lodging complaint. The court observed: It is needless to say that unexplained delay in lodging complaint in most of the times proves fatal for the prosecution. At the same time, there are plethora of decisions of the Apex Court where it is held that in a case of sexual assault and rape, delay in lodging FIR by itself is not a ground to discard the written complaint. The delay in lodging FIR is not of much significance as the victim has to muster courage to come out in open and express herself in a conservative social milieu. Sometimes the fear of social stigma and on some occasions fear from the accused persons and absence of strength to undertake a legal battle against the man of money, muscle and power are the reasons for delay in lodging complaint. Delay in lodging complaint is treated as a ground for false narration of the incident, embellishment and suppression of material fact. All such points are to be decided by the Court during the trial of a case. The case law of Lalita Kumari empowers the police authority to conduct preliminary inquiry over inordinate delay in lodging the complaint. The Supreme Court never directed in the case of Lalita Kumari to throw an application away under Section 156(3) of the Code on the ground of delay without sending it to the police authority for either preliminary inquiry or investigation treating the same as FIR.
13. Ram was a resident of Cherapunji, during the peak rainy season his locality got flooded and he had to move to a town nearby to live for few months, when he came back, he was bamboozled to see that his things were stolen. He immediately rushed to the nearest police station but even the police station was flooded and no one was there. After the rainy season got over, he once again went to the police station to lodge an FIR, but the policeman denied since Ram was filing FIR after many months. In the light of the facts & the passage, choose the best option.
14. Suppose in the previous question, when Ram saw that the police station is closed due to flooding, he filed an application under section 156(3) to the nearest magistrate but the magistrate dismissed his application prima facie. Decide.
15. Rishabh was a local resident of Delhi. One fine day, he was traveling from Kalkaji to Mandi House. During his journey in a metro, he was robbed by a group of people, who were a part of a politically-active party. Rishabh was going for an important business trip, so he could not file a complaint. After a couple of days, Rishabh went to file the same. However, the police and subsequently the court denied his request as Rishabh could not provide the basic details for an FIR.. Decide in the light of Section 156(3) of CrPC.
16. Which of the following statements cannot be inferred from the above passage?
