UG-CLAT entrance exam Question Bank Solutions for Legal Reasoning

Apply the legal principles to the facts given below and select the most appropriate answer. 
Legal Principles:

1. Consideration is something that moves from the promisee to the promisor, at the implied or express request of the latter, in return for his promise. The item that moves can be a right, interest, profit, loss, responsibility given or suffered, forbearance, or a benefit which is of some value in the eyes of law.

2. An offer may be revoked at any time before the communication of its acceptance is complete as against the proposer, but not afterward.

Factual Situation: The defendant, Mr. Dhawan, wrote to the complainant, Mr. Chaman, with an offer to sell his house to him for Rs. 8,00,000. He promised that he would keep this offer open to him until Friday. However, on a Thursday Mr. Dhawan accepted an offer from a third party and sold his house. According to Mr. Chaman, he was going to accept this offer but had not said anything to Mr. Dhawan because he understood that he had time until Friday. Mr. Dhawan communicated to Mr. Chaman that the offer had been withdrawn, through a friend to the complainant. After hearing this, Mr. Chaman went to find the defendant, informing of his acceptance of the offer. Thereafter, the complainant brought an action for specific performance and breach of contract against the defendant. Whether the defendant's promise to keep the offer open until Friday morning was a binding contract between the parties and whether he was allowed to revoke this offer and sell to a third party?

A and B Hindu couples were married to each other. Owing to differences between them they decided to get divorced. They entered into a contract laying down the conditions that both parties had to adhere to. One of the terms of the contract was that their children would not be entitled to claim the ancestral property of A, the husband.

Given below is a statement of legal principle followed by factual situations. Apply the principle to the facts and select the most appropriate answer.

PRINCIPLE Every agreement by which anyone is restrained from exercising a lawful profession, trade, or business of any kind, to that extent is void.

FACTUAL SITUATION A company entered into a contract with Coca Cola Ltd. to bottle soft drinks produced by Coca Cola. One of the terms of the contract was that the company would not bottle soft drinks for any other competitor of Coca Cola during the pendency of the contract.

Apply the legal principles to the facts given below and select the most appropriate answer.
Legal Principles:

1. Consideration is something that moves from the promisee to the promisor, at the implied or express request of the latter, in return for his promise. The item that moves can be a right, interest, profit, loss, responsibility given or suffered, forbearance, or a benefit which is of some value in the eyes of law.

2. An offer may be revoked at any time before the communication of its acceptance is complete as against the proposer, but not afterward.

Factual Situation: MXM Co. is a building contractor who entered into an agreement with Star Heights Housing Association to refurbish a block of 27 flats. This contract was subject to a liquidated damages clause if they did not complete the contract on time. The MXM Co. engaged Hasan to do the carpentry work for an agreed price of Rs. 20,000. After six months of commencing the work, Hasan realized he had priced the job too low and would be unable to complete at the originally agreed price. He approached MXM Co. who recognized that the price was particularly low and was concerned about completing the contract on time. MXM Co. agreed to make additional payments to Hasan in return for his promise to carry out his existing obligations.
MXM Co. agreed to pay Hasan an additional f 575 per flat. Hasan continued work on the flats for a further period of 6 weeks but only received an additional f 5,000. He then ran out of money and refused to continue unless payment was made. MXM Co. engaged another carpenter to complete the contract and refused to pay Hasan any further sums. Hasan sued for payment under the original agreement and the subsequent agreement. MXM Co. argued that the agreement to make additional payments was unenforceable as Hasan has not provided any consideration to make this agreement a valid contract. Decide.

Apply the legal principles to the facts given below and select the most appropriate answer.

Legal Principles:

1. Consideration is something that moves from the promisee to the promisor, at the implied or express request of the latter, in return for his promise. The item that moves can be a right, interest, profit, loss, responsibility given or suffered, forbearance, or a benefit which is of some value in the eyes of law.

2. An offer may be revoked at any time before the communication of its acceptance is complete as against the proposer, but not afterward.

Factual Situation: Bournville ran a sales promotion whereby if persons sent in 3 chocolate bar wrappers and a postal order for f 100 they would be sent a record. Big Beats owned the copyright in one of the records offered and disputed the right of Bournville to offer the records and sought an injunction to prevent the sale of the records which normally retailed at f 1,000. Under the Copyright Act, retailers are protected from breach of copyright if they gave notice to the copyright holders of the ordinary retail selling price and paid them 6.25% of this. Bournville gave notice stating the ordinary selling price was f 100 and three chocolate bar wrappers. The issue is whether the chocolate bar wrappers formed part of the consideration?

PRINCIPLE The object of an agreement is lawful unless it is forbidden by law; is of such nurture that, if permitted, it would defeat the provisions of any law; is fraudulent; involves or implies injury to the person or property of another person; the court regards it as immoral; it is opposed to public policy.

FACTUAL SITUATION A and B entered into a contract, whereby A agreed to get married to B if her parents paid A ₹ 100000 before the wedding. B's parents failed to pay the promised amount. A sues B and her parents.

Apply the legal principles to the facts given below and select the most appropriate answer.
Legal Principles:

1. Offer is a proposal made by one person to another to do any act or abstain from doing it. The person who makes the offer is known as the promisor or offeror and the person to whom an offer is made is known as the promisee or the offeree.
2. A contract comes into being by the acceptance of an offer. When the person to whom the offer is made signifies his consent thereto, the proposal is said to be accepted and the parties are at consensus ad idem regarding the terms of the agreement.

Factual Situation: Tejas drove his car to a car park named Super Car Park (SCP).Outside the car park, the prices were displayed and a notice stated cars were parked at the owner's risk. An automatic ticket vending machine provided a ticket, a barrier was raised and Tejas parked his car. In small print on the ticket, it was stated that the ticket is issued subject to conditions displayed on the premises. On a pillar opposite to the machine was a notice stating the owners would not be liable for any injuries occurring on their premises. Tejas met with an accident and sought damages from SCP. SCP denied any liability on the basis of the exclusion clause which was mentioned in the notice on the pillar. Whether there are an offer and acceptance of the exclusion clause?

A contract enforceable at the instance of one Party is known as

A void agreement means

Apply the legal principles to the facts given below and select the most appropriate answer.
Legal Principles:

1. Offer is a proposal made by one person to another to do any act or abstain from doing it. The person who makes the offer is known as the promisor or offeror and the person to whom an offer is made is known as the promisee or the offeree. 
2. A contract comes into being by the acceptance of an offer. When the person to whom the offer is made signifies his consent thereto, the proposal is said to be accepted and the parties are at consensus ad idem regarding the terms of the agreement.

Factual Situation: The plaintiffs offered to provide delivery of a machine tool for a price of ₹75,535. The delivery of the tool was set for 10 months, with the condition that orders only qualified as accepted once the terms in the quotation were met and prevailed over any of the buyer's terms. The buyer responded to the offer with their own terms and conditions, which did not include the 'price variation clause' listed in the seller's terms. This included a response section that required a signature and is returned in order to accept the order. The sellers returned this response slip with a cover letter signaling that delivery would be in accordance with their original quotation. The tool was ready for delivery but the buyers could not accept delivery, for which the sellers increased the price which was in line with their initial terms. This was denied by the buyer and an action was brought by the seller to claim the cost of delay and interest. Was a contract made with or without a price variation clause?

The question consists of legal propositions/principles (hereinafter referred to as 'principle') and facts. These principles have to be applied to the given facts to arrive at the most reasonable conclusion. Such principles may or may not be true in the real sense, yet you have to conclusively assume them to be true. In other words, in answering the following question, you must not rely on any principles except the principle that is given herein below for the question. Further, you must not assume any facts other than those stated in the question. The objective of this section is to test your interest in the study of law, research aptitude, and problem-solving ability.

PRINCIPLE Generally, an agreement without consideration is not valid. Therefore in order to make a valid agreement some consideration which may have some value in the eyes of law, is essentially required.

FACTS William has an old car of which he makes seldom uses. He voluntarily enters into an agreement with Smith to sell this car for rupees ten thousand. Thereafter one Anson approaches William and offers to buy that car for rupees one lac as the car was one which Anson has been searching for long. Now William wants to cancel his agreement with Smith and refuses to deliver the car to him saying that consideration (price) for the car promised by Smith is negligible and, therefore, agreement with him cannot be said to be the valid one.

The question consists of legal propositions/principles (hereinafter referred to as 'principle') and facts. These principles have to be applied to the given facts to arrive at the most reasonable conclusion. Such principles may or may not be true in the real sense, yet you have to conclusively assume them to be true. In other words, in answering the following question, you must not rely on any principles except the principle that is given herein below for the question. Further, you must not assume any facts other than those stated in the question. The objective of this section is to test your interest in the study of law, research aptitude, and problem-solving ability.

PRINCIPLE A contract cannot be enforced by or against a person who is not a party to it. However, where some benefit is conferred on the third party by the contract itself, their third party can be allowed to enforce that contract to get such benefit.

FACTS Dinesh is liable to pay ₹50000 to Suresh. In order to discharge this liability, Dinesh enters into a contract with Ramesh by which Dinesh sells his car to Ramesh for ₹1 lac. Ramesh takes the delivery of the car and promises/assures to pay its price at the earliest. Dinesh separately informs Suresh about this contract for his satisfaction. Ramesh fails to pay the car's price. Suresh wants to join Dinesh in filing suit against Ramesh for the recovery of the price of the car. Whether Suresh is entitled to do so?

The contract is said to have three essentials. Which one among the following is not essential in the formation of a contract?

Sheela, an adult married woman, agreed to live in adultery with Rahul and also agreed to serve him as his housekeeper. In return, Rahul, an adult agreed to pay Sheela ₹ 5000 per month for living in adultery and ₹ 5000 per month for housekeeping, the agreement is

'Pacta Sunt Servanda' means that

LEGAL PRINCIPLE Where the parents of a minor child due to their negligence allow the child an opportunity to commit a tort, the parents are liable.

FACTUAL SITUATION The father supplied an airgun to his son who was about to turn 18 next month. After some complaints of mischief. the father took the gun away and placed it in a corner of their storeroom which was used by the family to store surplus and other unnecessary stuff. The son took it out of the store and shot A. A sued his father. Is the father liable? DECISION: 

LEGAL PRINCIPLE A minor is not competent to contract.

FACTUAL SITUATION Deep, a 9th standard student realises that he is a minor, he is not permitted by law to execute a contract, appoints on Mandeep as his agent to conclude the purchase of land to gift it to his mother on her birthday. Mandeep accordingly prepares the papers for the transaction but at the last minute, the seller who had agreed to sell it now refuses to sell it contending that he does not wish to sell the land to a minor. Deep seeks to enforce the contract against the seller.

Given below is a statement of legal principle followed by a factual situation. Apply the principle to the facts and select the most appropriate answer.

PRINCIPLE Agreements, the meaning of which is not certain, or capable of being made certain, are void.

FACT A horse was bought for a certain price coupled with a promise to give ₹500 more if the horse proved lucky.

Under which law a minor is incapable of entering into a contract?

Given below is a statement of legal principle followed by a factual situation. Apply the principle to the facts given below and select the most appropriate answer.

LEGAL PRINCIPLE Contract is an agreement freely entered into between the parties. But when consent to an agreement is obtained by undue influence, the contract is voidable at the option of the party whose consent was so obtained.

FACTUAL SITUATION The Pragya had been worked for a businessman Anurag since the age of 18, working for a range of Anurag's businesses. In 2000, (aged 21) Pragya purchased a flat. In 2005, Mr Anurag's business was facing financial difficulties, and he asked Pragya to offer up her flat as a financial security against an overdraft facility for the business. In July of that year, the.banks solicitors wrote to Pragya, advising that she should take independent legal advice before putting her property up as a security for the debt. The bank also notified Pragya that the guarantee was unlimited in both time and financial amount. Having discussed the arrangement with Anurag, Pragya was unaware of the extent of the borrowing but was assured that her mortgage would not be called upon and that his own properties which were also used as security would be looked at first. A charge was executed over the Pragya's property in August 2005. In 2009, Mr Anurag's business went into liquidation and the bank formally demanded ₹ 60 24,912 from Pragya. Pragya raised the defence of undue Influence - stating that Mr Anurag had induced her to enter into the agreement, and the bank had full knowledge/notice of this undue influence which should set aside the bank's right to enforce the debt recovery against Pragya. The bank is contending that there is no undue influence. 

Whether the consent to offer the flat as financial security obtained through undue influence?