Module 2 Finding the Law

Topic: i. Finding Law in Statute’s

ii. Finding Case Law’s
a. Finding Judgments in Reporters/Digests
b. Finding Judgments through Legal Software’s
c. Finding Judgments through e-sources
d. Use of SCC Online, Manupatra, Westlaw, HeinOnline, JStor,
SSRN etc.
iii. Using Law Library

Total Number of
Classes

Objective: 1. To acquaint students with primary sources and secondary sources

and their importance;
2. To explain where to find how to classify and how to use such sources.
3. To draw the link between common law tradition and doctrine of
precedents;
4. To explain its meaning and applicability of the doctrine.
5. To imbibe the skills for efficient use of library
6. To motivate students to use library and library resources
Pedagogy and Interactive Session

Teaching aids Use of PPTs

Compulsory Readings: Indian Law Institute, Where to Find the Law,

http://14.139.60.114:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/156/4/The%20In
dian%20 Law%20Institute.pdf, pages 11-15
Sajid Sheikh, Understanding a Case Citation, https://lawlex.org/lex-
bulletin/understanding-a-case-citation/9786
Additional Reading: 1. Charles R Calleros, Legal Method and Writing,(2006), Page 29-48

Learning Outcomes: 1. Students will be able to understand the basis of classification, and use
of such resources for legal research.
Questions: Classify following sources (Primary and Secondary Sources)

To what extent can you rely on each of these sources? (Answer in 15 words
each)

Identify with complete details

1. Case Reporters
2. Manuals
3. Commentaries
4. Bare Acts
5. Law Journals
 Write full forms of following:

1. AIR
2. SCC
3. CrLJ
4. Identify other reports and what they specialize in.
List databases available free of cost (online) (Provide complete links {URLs})

How useful are these databases (mention a clear purpose based on the nature
of data available)

List online databases subscribed by the University (mention a clear purpose

based on the nature of data available)

EXERCISE– FINDING THE RELEVANT STATUTE

In six groups of ten students each, consider the following set of facts. Identify the statutes /
statutory provisions that are relevant to the set of facts: (2 groups for each set of facts)

CASE 1:
Prabhu and Padma fell in love. Their parents objected to their marriage due to caste differences.
Prabhu and Padma eloped, and had a registered marriage. Their first few months of married
life was happy and cordial. Subsequently Prabhu started consuming alcohol excessively,
returned home and mentally tortured Padma by suspecting her character. He also assaulted her
on several occasions, and on one occasion, she was hospitalized for three days. He took away
the jewellery she was wearing, consisting of a mangal sutra, a pair of gold bangles, silver earrings
and silver toe rings, and sold off the same, and deposited the money into his bank account.
When Padma went to the police station to complain about the harassment meted out by
Prabhu, Prabhu followed her and made a counter complaint about her family members, calling
them thieves and beggars. Padma has approached you for legal advice.

CASE 2:
A young man, Sujit Ghosh, has cerebral palsy. He frequently travels by air to various parts of
India and to other countries, and participated in seminars and conferences on how to take care
of people with cerebral palsy, and what were their needs and requirements. One day, he
boarded a Superjet flight from Mumbai to Bangkok to attend a conference on the issue. He
had duly purchased a ticket, and was issued a boarding pass at the check-in counter at Mumbai
airport. As he was about to board the aircraft, he was stopped at the boarding gate, and his
luggage was offloaded. When he questioned the Superjet staff about reason for preventing him
from boarding the flight, they refused to assign any reason. When he insisted on meeting their
manager, the staff started verbally abusing him and shoved him, as a result of which he lost his
balance and fell down, and fractured his right arm. The airline staff refused to provide him
with medical assistance. His mobile phone fell down and broke into many pieces. Sujit Ghosh
was enraged by the airline’s behaviour and has approached you for legal assistance. Superjet is
partially owned by the Indian government.

CASE 3:
Ravi was 19 years old. He worked as an assistant in a laboratory attached to a municipal hospital.
His job was to take samples of body fluids from patients, label them with the patient’s name
and then deliver the same for testing. One day, there were many patients and he was tired,
stressed and confused. Due to this, he put the wrong label on the samples, leading to incorrect
and misleading results being issued. The angry patients arrived at the laboratory with their
relatives and neighbours and started shouting at the workers in the laboratory. The manager
came to know that the inaccurate results were due to Ravi’s careless work. When the manager
confronted Ravi, Ravi got frightened and escaped from the place using his colleague’s
motorcycle, in which the colleague had left the key in its ignition by mistake. As he fled from
the place, he dashed into an autorickshaw, causing it to topple, resulting in injury to the
autorickshaw driver and damage to the vehicle. A traffic police officer tried to apprehend Ravi.
Ravi pushed him down and fled in his vehicle.

Make a presentation of your ideas during a follow up discussion. Your group will be expected to
submit one good copy of your responses to and thoughts on this topic at the end of class.

CASE 4

You have been approached by Mr. Deepesh Chadha, who is accused of raping his companion
while the two were on a date, to act as his attorney. Chadha admitted to have consensual sexual
intercourse with the victim. The Prosecution during the trial in order to prove the charge of rape
against Chadha, sought to introduce evidence of the previous criminal antecedents of Chadha
and previous prosecution of rape against him. Chadha wants from you that his previous criminal
record is excluded from the evidence.

1. Find a provision in Indian Penal Code that says consensual sexual intercourse with a girl
above 18 years doesn’t amount to rape.

2. In Question (1) find whether any amendment has been made in the provision and if yes,
what?

3. Find a section in Indian Evidence Act that says evidence of prior wrongs are irrelevant
and whether there are any exceptions to it.

4. Find a law review article on difficulty of proving criminal intent in date rape cases. Also,
summarize the article in your language.
5. Find a majority judgment of Supreme Court, which supports the case of your client.

6. Find a dissenting opinion of a judge of Supreme Court, which supports the case of your
client

7. Find a Judgment of High court, in support of your client.

On the basis of above findings, divide the source into following categories

a. Primary authority(s)

b. Primary authority(s) that has persuasive value

c. Secondary authority

CASE 5:

The residents of a prominent residential locality of the Municipality approached you for legal
advice on their problem that their Municipality had failed despite several pleas, to meet its basic
obligations, like provision of sanitary facilities on the roads, public conveniences for slum
dwellers who were using the road for that purpose, and prevention of the discharge from the
nearby Alcohol Plant of maladorous fluids into the public street, and that the Municipality
was oblivious to the statutory obligation. Now they want to file a complaint with your help.

After doing research. Tell your client.

1. About the statutory provisions involved in the facts of the case.

2. Constitutional provisions in support of the complainant.

3. Under which provisions of law, said complaint can be filed?

4. Judgment of the Supreme Court, which favors their case?

5. Find a Judgment, where Court has directed the statutory authority (like Municipal body)
to provide the compulsory amenities to the people, which incurs certain expenditure on the body.
Whether, courts can do so? Find the reasons.

WHERE TO FIND THE LAW

“Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find
information upon it”- Dr. Johnson.

The word “ authority” is used by lawyers in at least two senses- one abstract and the other
concrete. In the concrete sense, authority means a book or other place to which one resorts to
in order to find a proposition of law. In this sense authority is divisible into two senses - Primary
and Secondary. Legislations and reports of decided cases are Primary Authorities for
propositions of law. Among the Secondary Authorities are Encyclopedia, Books, Treatises, Law
Review Articles and reports of Committees and other Statutory or Legislative bodies.
 In the abstract sense, the word “Authority” is substantially equivalent to influence or power.
In this sense also authority is divisible into two grades - lmperafive and Persuasive. Statutes and
the decisions of courts ( depending upon their position in the hierarchy ) are Imperative while
the decisions of courts of foreign jurisdiction are Persuasive.

CONSTITUTION OF INDIA
The constitution was framed by a Constituent Assembly in a long time of 2 years 11 months
and 18 days. It is the longest Constitution in the world. The Constituent Assembly was
constituted in November 1946 through indirect election of its members by provincial
legislatures under the provisions of Cabinet Mission Plan, 1946. The Assembly consisted of
total 389 members of which 292 were to be elected from provinces, 93 were to be nominated
from princely States and four members were to be nominated from Chief Commissioner’s
Areas. The Drafting Committee finalized the Draft Constitution of India in February 1948 and
the second reading of the same by the Assembly was completed on October 17, 1948. For the
third reading of the Constitution, the Assembly met on November 14, 1949 and finished it on
November 26, 1949. The Constitution was adopted on the same date with members and the
President signing the Constitution. According to Article 394, some of the provisions of the
Constitution relating to citizenship, elections, provisional parliament and temporary and
transitional provisions contained in Articles 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 60, 324, 366, 367, 379, 380, 388, 391,
392 and 393 came into force on 26th November 1949 and the remaining provisions of the
Constitution came into force on 26th January 1950. The Republic Day is celebrated on 26th
January, because India was declared Republic on this day in 1950. For details, following
documents can be consulted:

1. Alexandrowicz, C.H. Constitutional development in India, Bombay: Oxford University

Press 1957.
2. Austin, G. The Indian Constitution: cornerstone of nation. Oxford: Clarendon P. 1966.
3. Banerjee, A.C., Ed. Indian Constitutional Documents, 1757-1 947 4 vols. Calcutta: A
Mukherjee 1961.
4. Chatterji, A. The constitutional development of India, 1937-47. Calcutta: F.K.L.
Mukhopadhyay 1958.
5. India, Constituent Assembly Debates. New Delhi, Lok Sabha Secretariat. 12 vols. And
Index and the Tabular Statement. Reprinted 2003.
6. Kashyap, Subhash C. Constitution Making since 1950: An overview. Universal Law
Publishing Company, New Delhi, 2004.
7. Mishra, P. The Making of the Indian Republic: some aspects of India’s Constitution in
the making. Calcutta: Sethi Book Agency 1966.
8. Rau, B.N. India’s Constitution in the making. Edited by B. Siva Rao. London: Longmans
1960.
9. Setalvad, M.C. Indian Constitution, 1950-65. Bombay: University of Bombay 1967.
10. The Framing of India’s Constitution 4 vols. And 1 more volume (study). New Delhi,
I.I.P.A. 1968 (Order: Tripathi, Bombay). Reprinted by Universal Law Publishing
Company, 2004.
An official copy of the Constitution of India is available with Indian Law Institute’s Library.
Government issues a new edition almost every 2-3 years as there are amendments to the
Constitution from time to time. The official copy of the Constitution of India can also be had
from Controller of Publications, Government of India, Delhi and its branches and authorized
agents. The Constitution of India with amendments is available on the website of Ministry of
Law and Justice (http://indiacode.nic.in/ coiweb/welcome. html).

LEGISLATION
The word legislation taken in a wide sense includes Acts, Rules, ordinances, Regulations,
Notifications and even Constitutional Amendments. The most important source of legislation
in the Indian scenario is an Official Gazette. Central legislations is published in the Gazette of
India and State legislations is published in the State Gazettes.

GAZETTE OF INDIA
The current legislative material, i.e. bills, Acts, rules, notifications,, orders etc. are published in
the Gazette of India. Not all sections of the gazette are of use for legal research. Only some of
them may be relevant. The contents of the gazette are given below so as to give an idea as to
what it contains:

PART I, Section 1: Notifications relating to non-statutory rules, regulations, orders and

resolutions issued by Ministries of Government of India (other than the Ministry of Defence)
and Supreme Court.

PART I, Section 2: Notifications relating to Appointments, Promotions, Leave etc. of

Government Officers issued by the Ministries of Government of India (other than Ministry of
Defence) and by the Supreme Court.

PART I, Section 3: Notifications relating to Resolutions and Non-Statutory Orders issued by the
Ministry of Defence.

PART I , Section 4: Notifications relating to Appointments, Promotions, Leave etc. of

Government Officers issued by the Ministry of Defence.

Part II, Section 1: Acts, Ordinances and Regulations

Part II, Section 1A: Authoritative texts in Hindi languages of Acts, Ordinance and Regulations.

Part II, Section 2: Bills and report of the Select Committee on Bills.
PART II, Section 3: Sub-section (i): General Statutory Rules (including orders, Bye-laws, etc.
of general character) issued by the Ministries of the Government of India (other than the
Administration of Union Territories).

PART II, Section 3: Sub-section (ii): Statutory Orders and notifications issued by the Ministries
of the Government of India (other than the Ministry of Defence) and by Central Authorities
(other than the Administration of Union Territories).

PART II, Section 3: Sub-section (iii): Authoritative texts in Hindi (other than such texts,
published in Section 3 or Section 4 of the Gazette of India) of General Statutory Rules &
Statutory Orders (including Bye-laws of a general character) issued by the Ministries of the
Government of India (including the Ministry of Defence and by Central Authorities (other than
Administration of Union Territories).

Part II, Section 4: Statutory Rules and orders issued by the Ministry of Defence.

Part III, Section 1: Notifications issued by the high courts, the Comptroller and Auditor
General, Union Public Service Commission, the lndian Government Railways and by Attached
and Subordinate Offices of the Government of India.

Part III, Section 3: Notifications issued by or under the authority of Chief Commissioners.

Part III, Section 4: Miscellaneous notifications including Notifications, Orders, Advertisements

and Notices issued by Statutory Bodies.

Part IV: Advertisements and Notices issued by Private Individuals and Private Bodies.

Part V: Supplement showing statistics of births and deaths etc. both in English and Hindi.

ACTS OF PARLIAMENT: MANAGER OF PUBLICATIONS. 1951-

This is an annual publication containing all the Acts passed by the Parliament in a year. Started
in 1951 it also gives tables showing effects of legislation and an index. Price of each volume
varies from year to year. Information about the price and availability can be had from the
Manager of Publications, Delhi who are the publishers of this series. When a Bill is passed by
both houses of Parliament and has received the President’s assent it normally becomes the Law.
The different parts of an Act are short title, official citation, long title, date of President assent,
section and sub-sections, marginal note and date of commencement or enforcement.

PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES
Day-to-day proceedings of both the Houses of the Parliament are published separately. These
These two publications are: are the only materials giving the discussion held in the Parliament
on bills. Lok Sabha Debates. Delhi: Manager of Publications. 1950- Rajya Sabha Debates. Delhi:
Manager of Publications. 1950- Parliamentary Debates are also available at the website of
Parliament of India www.parliamentofindia.nic.in Debates are also available in ILI Library from
463 onwards.

LOCAL LAWS OF ALL STATES

Local Laws of most of the States in India are available in the Gazette Notifications of States.
Private publications are also available which are called Local Laws or Codes of States. For
example, Andhra Pradesh Local Acts, Bihar Local Acts, Delhi Local Acts, Gujarat Local Acts,
Haryana Local Acts & Rules, Himachal Pradesh Code, Karnataka Local Laws, Madhya Pradesh
and Chhattisgarh Local Acts, Laws of Jammu & Kashmir, Manual of Tamil Nadu Acts and
Rules, Orissa Local Laws, Punjab & Haryana Local Acts, Rajasthan Local Acts, Uttar Pradesh
Local Acts, West Bengal Laws are available with the private publishers. These local laws are
also availavle with ILI Library.

Apart from Official Gazettes, Central as well as State Acts, Rules, Ordinances, and
Notifications can also be obtained from various private publications. Current lndian Statutes
and Current Central Legislation are two publications which are frequently relied on this
purpose. 13

Certain law reports also publish latest Acts, Rules and Ordinances and Notifications in their
Statute Sections. For example, the All India Reporter (A. I. R.) publishes latest legislations in
its Acts Section. Similarly Kerala Law Times (K. L. T.) a private law reports published from
Kerala has a Statute Section wherein they publish Central as well as State (Kerala) Acts, Rules,
Notifications, Ordinances, Orders and even Constitutional Amendments.

Text of old Acts be accessed through encyclopedias such as A. Z. R. Manual. So far as

legislations of foreign jurisdictions are concerned, one of most reliable sources is the Legal
Encyclopedia published in those jurisdictions. However as far as latest legislations of foreign
jurisdictions are concerned the major source is the World Wide Web (www).

BILLS
The legislative process in Parliament, of which the end result is to be an Act, begins with the
first reading of a bill. A bill may be defined as a draft version of a proposed Act, and the first
reading is a formal presentation to Parliament. Subject to the special provisions regarding
Money Bills can be introduced in either House of Parliament. The Bill is first debated in its
second reading, and it may be referred to the Committee for detailed suggestions and
amendments. Then, it passes the debate of third reading, it goes to the another house and may
be subjected to further amendments. Subject to the special provisions regarding joint sitting.
(Art. 108) and Money Bill (Art. 109) a Bill shall have been passed by both Houses of Parliament
separately. A Bill pending in House shall not lapse by reason of prorogation of Houses. A Bill
pending in the Council of States, which has not been passed by the House of the People shall
not lapse on a dissolution of the House of the People. A Bill which is pending in the House of
the People or which having been passed by the House of the People is pending in the Council
of States shall lapse on dissolution of the House of People. (Art.107). On receiving a Bill passed
by both Houses of Parliament (except Money Bills and Constitutional Amendments Bills),
presented to the President for his assent, he shall declare either that he assents to the Bill or he
withholds assent there from. However, the President may return the bill to Parliament for
reconsideration and if the Bill is again presented to the President after such reconsideration, he
shall not withhold his assent. (Art.111). For a reader, the Bills of Parliament are important due
to aims and objects given. Bills are published in Gazette of India PART 2 Section 2. Bills are
also available from the Sales Section of Parliament.

LAW DICTIONARY
Law is among other things the science of precise use of word. A law dictionary is therefore
indispensable for a lawyer. This is particularly so as far as a beginner in law is concerned. It
comes to the aid of a law student when he is confronted with a vocabulary, which is relatively
new to him. A law dictionary defines and illustrates the meaning of words, terms and phrases
which are legal words of art or have a legal slant. Most of these words are English, but because
early language or law was Latin, many words from the said language are also defined. Law
dictionaries also cite or quote authorities for definitions. It may serve as a case finder, through
its citation of authorities leading to a snow-bailing process in legal research by which a single
case in point so often leads to all like cases. Illustrations: Ballentine, Law Dictionary with
Pronounciation, Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company, New York A. Garner, Black's
Law Dictionary, West Group, Minnesotta (7th ed., 1999) Stroud's Judicial Dictionary of Words
and Phrases, 6fh ed., 3 Vol, London, Sweet & Maxwell Burton, William C, Legal Thesaurus,
London, MacMillan Publishing Co. 14

LAW REPORTS
What a lawyer wants is a case squarely in point with his legal problem decided by a court of
competent jurisdictions, which has not been reversed or is still in good standing as a legal
precedent. Consequently, one of the important materials wherein a lawyer could find what he
wants is a Case Report. A printed Case Report is not a minute of the trial recording evidence
cross examination and other proceedings before the Court. It is instead a production of an
adequate record of a judicial decision on a point of law in a case heard in open court for
subsequent citation as a precedent. Almost all law reports found in the law libraries are of
Appellate Courts or of Constitutional Courts. That does not mean that all appellate decisions
are reported. Reported cases are confined to those which make new law or are of general
interest to the public. Selection of cases to be reported and printed is usually a matter of editorial
discretion on the part of the reporter. Some reports are designated as official and others
unofficial, the difference being that the official reports are published under the statutory
authority and unofficial reports are not so. Both official and unofficial reports use identical
texts of judgements and opinions as supplied by the Courts, but editorial matters such as tables,
indices and head notes are different as between official and unofficial reports. Apart from the
General Law Reports there are certain reports which report cases from specific branches of
law.
Source:
http://14.139.60.114:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/156/4/The%20Indian%20Law%20Insti
tute.pdf, pages 11-15

Precedent literally means a rule followed or a principle applied previously by a competent

authority under similar facts and circumstances". If a previous decision by a court is taken as a
basis or source for deciding the case under similar facts and circumstances, It is called judicial
precedent. In general sense, precedence means 'some set pattern guiding the future conduct. The
fundamental principle behind the precedent is that like cases should be treated alike. In judicial
Field it means the guidance or authority of past decision for future cases. The importance of
precedent is precedent is recognized by both ancient law and modern law. "Precedent, Which are
enforceable by law are called judicial precedents." According to Oxford Dictionary 'Precedent
means " A previous instance or case which is or may be taken as an example of rule for subsequent
cases"

Stare decisis is a doctrine or policy of following rules or principles laid down in previous judicial
decisions. It is the principal that maintains that previous decisions are to be followed by the courts.
This policy dictates that the court must abide or adhere to decided cases.

Obiter Dicta: Under the doctrine of stare decisis, statements constituting obiter dicta are not
binding, although in some jurisdictions, such as England and Wales, they can be strongly
persuasive.

Ratio Decidendi: What is of the essence in decision is its ratio and not every observation found
therein not what logically follows from the various observations made in the judgment. Every
judgment must be read as applicable to the particular facts proved, since the generality of the
expressions which may be found there is not intended to be exposition of the whole law, but
governed and qualified by the particular facts of the case in which such expressions are to be
found. It would, therefore, be not profitable to extract a sentence here and there from the
judgment and to build upon it because the essence of the decision is its ratio and not every
observation found therein. The enunciation of the reason or principle on which a question before
a court has been decided is alone binding between the parties to it, but it, is the abstract ratio
decidendi, ascertained on a consideration of the judgment in relation to the subject matter of the
decision, which alone has the force of law and which, when it is clear what it was, is binding.