Class Notes - 27th September, Friday, 2024

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These are the notes from the classes held on 27th September 2024 for LLB 3Y students at Padala Rama Reddi Law College, covering Law of Contracts, Family Law, Constitutional Law, and Environmental Law. Though vetted, the notes may contain inaccuracies due to the dynamic nature of classroom discussions.

Law of Contracts - 1

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Faculty: Ms. Radha Kumari

Consideration:

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• Salient features: Consideration must be lawful, of value, and sufficient but need not be adequate. If a contract lacks consideration, it is a void agreement. Consideration can take many forms:

  • Act
  • Abstinence
  • Forbearance
  • Return promise

• Types of Consideration:

  • It can be an advantage or benefit moving from one party to the other. It may exist in the form of benefit, advantage, disadvantage, loss, or detriment.

• Exceptions to Consideration:

  • Contracts made without consideration can still be valid in certain cases (e.g., contracts made out of love and affection, voluntary services, or charitable contributions).

Capacity of the Parties:

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• Every person is capable of entering into a valid contract as long as they:

  1. Are of the age of majority
  2. Are of sound mind
  3. Are not disqualified by law

• Incompetent Persons:

  • Minors: Contracts with minors are generally void.
  • Unsound mind: Contracts with individuals of unsound mind are void, especially if the other party was aware of their condition.
  • Persons disqualified by law: Bankrupts/insolvents, criminals, alien enemies, and persons with certain legal disabilities cannot contract. It is also advised that caution is exercised when entering into contracts with diplomats, ambassadors and sovereigns as you may not be able to seek legal remedy due to immunity protections to these persons.

• Test of Soundness (Section 12):

  • It is the duty of each party to ensure they are entering into contracts with persons who are legally sound and competent to contract. Furthermore, you must be cautious when contracting with anyone as you would be at a loss and cannot seek legal remedy in cases where you make a mistake.

Environmental Law - 1

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Faculty: Ms. Vijaya Kalyani

Functions of the Ecosystem:

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1. Productivity:

   • Primary Productivity: The rate at which radiant energy is captured by producers (plants) through photosynthesis.

     • Gross Primary Productivity: The total rate of energy capture per unit area and time.
     • Net Primary Productivity: Energy stored after respiration and maintenance (NPP = GPP - Respiration).

   • Secondary Productivity: The rate at which organic matter is resynthesized by consumers (herbivores and carnivores).

2. Energy Flow:

   • The functioning of an ecosystem depends on the flow of energy. Solar energy is converted into chemical energy by producers, which is then transferred to consumers. The amount of energy decreases with each trophic level.

3. Food Chain:

   • The transfer of energy from one organism to another through repeated eating and being eaten.
   • Types of Food Chains:
     1. Grazing Food Chain: (e.g., Plant → Grasshopper → Frog → Snake → Eagle)
     2. Aquatic Food Chain: (e.g., Phyto Plankton → Small Fish → Larger Fish → Predator)
     3. Detritus Food Chain: (e.g., Mangrove Leaves → Microorganisms → Detritus → Nutrients)
        graph TD A[Types of Food Chains] A --> B[Grazing Food Chain] A --> C[Aquatic Food Chain] A --> D[Detritus Food Chain] B --> B1[Plant] B1 --> B2[Grasshopper] B2 --> B3[Frog] B3 --> B4[Snake] B4 --> B5[Eagle] C --> C1[Phyto Plankton] C1 --> C2[Small Fish] C2 --> C3[Larger Fish] C3 --> C4[Predator] D --> D1[Mangrove Leaves] D1 --> D2[Microorganisms] D2 --> D3[Detritus] D3 --> D4[Nutrients]

4. Food Web:

   • A network of interconnected food chains in an ecosystem. It provides alternative pathways for the flow of energy when one source is unavailable.

Family Law - 1

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Faculty: Ms. Sriveni

Hierarchy in Revenue Courts:

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• District Magistrate
  • Sub Divisional Magistrate
    • Executive Magistrate
    • Special Executive Magistrate
      graph TD A[District Magistrate] --> B[Sub Divisional Magistrate] B --> C[Executive Magistrate] B --> D[Special Executive Magistrate]

Terms and Their Usage:

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• Petitioner and Respondent: Used in special enactments like the Motor Vehicles Act.
• Plaintiff and Defendant: Used in Civil Procedure Code (CPC).

There maybe changes in the terms depending on the jurisdiction. Even in India, different parts have different terms.

Brief Overview of the Syllabus:

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Unit-I:

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• Sources of Hindu Law
• Schools of Hindu Law (Mitakshara and Dayabhaga)
• Concepts such as Joint Family, Coparcenary, Joint Family Property, etc. This is going to be one of the most interesting things we learn. People were posing dozens of questions.

Coparcenary Property (Very interesting for most of us)

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• Refers to the ancestral property inherited by a Hindu family under the Hindu Succession Act. A coparcenary is a legal concept where property is inherited jointly by multiple family members who have a birthright to the property.

Heirs

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• Class 1 Heirs: Immediate family members who have the first right to the deceased’s property. This includes:
  • Son, daughter, widow, mother, and children of a pre-deceased son or daughter.
• Class 2 Heirs: Heirs who inherit the property only if there are no Class 1 heirs. This includes:
  • Brother, sister, father, and other relatives listed in the Hindu Succession Act. This information is primarily for men, women have different rules.

Agnates and Cognates

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• Agnates: Refers to relatives connected through males, such as the paternal side.
• Cognates: Refers to relatives connected through females, such as the maternal side.

Full Blood

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• Definition: Refers to siblings who share both parents (same mother and father).

Half Blood

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• Definition: Refers to siblings who share only one parent, either the mother or the father, but not both.

Uterine Blood

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• Definition: Refers to siblings who share the same mother but have different fathers (uterine brothers or uterine sisters).

Unit I Contd

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• Powers and functions of the Karta.
• Partition and pious obligation. Pious obligation, i.e., payment of debts of father by son for good karma, was abolished in 2004.

Constitutional Law - 1

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Faculty: Mr. M. Gangadhar Rao

Framing of the Indian Constitution 1950

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• There were only 2 Constituent Assemblies constituted before this:
  • Philadelphia Convention (1787) which drafted the US Constitution.
  • French Constituent Assembly(1789) which drafted the French Constitution during the French Revolution.
• There were 389 members, and about 90 people left for Pakistan after partition. 299 were remaining.
• The Constituent Assembly had members from princely states, which numbered around 93. They were nominated by the provinces. This means that India did not have a proper representation of the people.
• 87% of the members were from the Indian National Congress. This is one of the criticisms of the Constitution of India as it was seen as being similar to the manifesto of the Indian National Congress.
• Mahatma Gandhi was not a member of the Constituent Assembly. His views were largely ignored by others. He suggested that every village must be a self-sufficient unit, like the Japanese model.
• Some people proposed adopting the Soviet Union model, which advocated communism. This would have required the elite to give up their property, hence it was rejected.
• India chose a mixed economy with capitalism for certain areas and socialism for the remaining sectors.
• The Constituent Assembly first met on 9th December 1946.
  • Oldest Person and temporary President: Dr. Sachchidananda Sinha.
  • Final President: 11th December 1946, Dr. Rajendra Prasad.
• Drafting Committee:
  • Chairman: Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, nominated from Bombay.
  • 2 years, 11 months, and 18 days were taken to frame the constitution.
  • Other countries took:
    • America: 4 months
    • Canada: 1 year
    • Australia: About 9 years
    • South Africa: About 2 years
  • The top priority was to ensure that India would be a united nation. Hence, some powers were centralized. India was made a federal state with a strong central government to counter any secessionist tendencies.
  • Fundamental Duties are not justiciable. They were added via the 42nd Amendment and were not part of the original Constitution of India.
  • The Constitution of India originally had 395 Articles.
  • 75% of the Constitution was taken from the Government of India Act 1935.
• Borrowed Provisions:
  • America:
    • Fundamental Rights
    • Judicial Review
    • Impeachment
  • Germany:
    • Emergency Provisions
  • Canada:
    • Residuary Powers (powers not falling under the Central, State, or Concurrent lists)
  • Britain:
    • Parliamentary form of government
    • Cabinet system
    • Attorney General of India
  • Australia:
    • Freedom of trade and commerce
    • Concurrent List
  • Japan:
    • Procedure Established by Law
  • Ireland:
    • Directive Principles of State Policy
    • Method of electing the President
• The Constitution was adopted on 26th November 1949.
• The Constitution was brought into force on 26th January 1950, which is celebrated as Republic Day.
• 7,885 questions were raised by various members of the Constituent Assembly, and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar resolved all of them effectively. People were in awe of Ambedkar’s ability to skillfully deal with all these questions raised by the members of the Constituent Assembly.
• The Constitution of India left nothing to chance and laid down everything in detail so that no future government could act in a way detrimental to the people.

Points to Note:

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• Torts: Class was not conducted today.
• Classes today were only 40 minutes each. Apparently there were some logistics matters. Classes ended at 12:20pm.
• A couple of us went to the Secunderabad Court Complex after the college hours and visited some court proceedings. We also met 2 PRRLC alumni who are now practicing advocates who gave us a lot of insights into the workings of the Court. It was an interesting visit and we learned a great deal about the court which we couldn’t gather from the classroom.