Various sources of Law in India

1. SOURCES OF LAW
Presented By:
Anjishnu Mukhopadhyay 18A002
Aayush Sharma 18A005
Aritra Mondal 18A003
Viral Amasara 18A001
Nehal Bhagat 18A004

2. TYPES
ENGLISH LAW
JUDICIAL DECISIONS
CUSTOMS AND USAGE
INDIAN STATUTE

3. ENGLISH LAW

4. ENGLISH COMMON LAW

5. EQUITY
 Equity is the system of justice which was developed and administered by the high court of chancery in England for the
exercise of its good jurisdiction. Equity, in itself is a technical and scientific legal sense, which means that neither normal
justice nor an even portion of natural justice which is susceptible of being judicially enforced. It when employed in the
language of English law, an accurate and precise definition and some signification, and is used by the system of justice
which was administered in a court.
 Equity is the system of justice which was administered by the High Court of Chancery in England by the exercise of their
extraordinary jurisdiction.
 Once the writ was on paper, it couldn’t be changed .So if some mistake is made , the case would become void and the
person who is claiming would lose that particular case. People sometimes not content with the decision made by the
Common Law Court, as the remedy they could have is 'damages.' This was the compensation money which was paid by
the defendant to the other party. This happens more often, as money doesn’t solve everything. The Chancellor develops
new remedies that would able to compensate the plaintiffs fully than that of the Common Law remedy made for the
damages.

6. STATUTE LAW
 There are four sources of law in India which are the Constitution, statutes (legislation), customary law and case law.
Statutes are approved by the Parliament, State legislatures and Union Territory legislatures. Besides, there is a large
body of laws known as the subordinate legislation which is in the form of rules and regulations as well as the laws
made by Central or State governments and local authorities like municipal corporations , gram panchayats and other
local bodies. This sub legislation is formed under the authority conferred or delegated either by the Parliament or
State or Union Territory legislatures . Judicial decisions of the higher courts like that of the Supreme Court and
High Courts are important sources of law. Decisions of Supreme Court are to be followed by all courts within the
territory of India. Local customs and conventions who were not against statute, morality, etc., are also taken into
account by courts while during the administering justice in certain spheres.

7. CUSTOMS AND USAGE

8. CUSTOM LAW
 These type of laws deals with the standard of community that established in a given local. However
this term can also apply to areas of international law where some standards have been nearly
universal in their acceptance like that of laws for piracy or slavery . In many, though not in all
instances, customary laws will also have supportive court rulings and law based on the cases that have
been evolved over the time to give additional weight to their rule as law and will also demonstrate the
path of evolution during the interpretation of such type of law by particular courts
 Customs were always an important source of law. The two bones of contention regarding the customs
in the Hindu Law are like:
1. It is valid under the smriti law
2. Its relevancy to different castes and different tribes who are not governed by the smriti law.
This is because of the working women who belong to the lower caste of the society, the various castes
and tribes had relatively more number of woman oriented . Inheritance laws as opposed by the higher
castes where women mainly who just maintained the household. These were the reason why the
efforts were made at first make the laws uniform across the Hindu Law.

9. INDIAN STATUTE

10. BILL TO LAW (1/5)
Usually, there is no dispute on introduction of a bill. The person (Minister or MP) who is given
a leave to introduce a bill may give some broad idea to introduce the bill. This is known as
motion for introduction or moving the bill of the bill. The moving of the ordinary bill can be
contradicted by the opposition. If the bill is opposed during introduction, the speaker may
allow one of the opposing members to refer to the reasons. Hereafter Speaker will put the
question to vote. If the House is in favor of introduction of the bill, then the bill is introduced
and goes on to the next stages for the bill to become a law.

11. BILL TO LAW (2/5)
 After introduction, the bill is open for 4 alternative courses of action in this stage:
 It may be taken into consideration.
 It may be passed on to a Select Committee of the House.
 It may be referred to a Joint Committee of both the houses that is Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.
 It may be circulated / put on website for purpose of eliciting the public opinion on it( this is resorted only in a case
when the proposed legislative measure may arouse a public controversy).
The acceptance of the Report by the Select Committee or Joint Committee members is followed by a detailed “Clause to
Clause” discussion on the bill. Each Clause is taken up by the House and amendments are moved, discussed and inclined
off. This stage is very essential. The amendments which are related and pertain to the bill are moved and the Bill goes for
considerable changes in this stage. This is one of the most time consuming (of the house) stages of a legislative procedure.
A bill is looked into “clause by clause” and when every clause is voted, this is called “Second Reading”. Thus, the first two
readings of the bill actually polish up the subject matter of the bills.

12.  After the second Reading, the house is given enough time to study the clauses of the bill. After that the MP/Minister who had
moved this bill moves that “the bill is passed”. This is known as Third Reading. Please note that mostly all the amendments in
the third reading are just formal and normally verbal in nature. The discussion is quick and limited. The bill is finally passed as
a whole and this symbolizes the work of one house coming to end. The bill is dispatched to another house. The same three
reading process is followed in second house of the parliament. In the second house, there are three futures for the bill:
 It is passed as it was passed in the originating house without any changes.
 It is to be amended
 It is to be rejected.
 In case the other house feels that the bill needs to be amended or rejected, the bill is sent back to the originating house. If the
second house does not respond for 6 months to the originating house it is deemed to be rejected. Once it is returned to the
originating house, the amendments that were suggested by the other house are considered. Here two options arise
 The amendments are accepted. In this case, the originating house sends a message to the other house that the amendments
suggested are accepted.
 The amendments are NOT accepted. In this case also the originating house sends a message to the other house that the
amendments suggested are not accepted. In this case the President calls for a joint sitting with he members of both the houses as
mentioned in Article 108.
BILL TO LAW (3/5)

13. BILL TO LAW (4/5)
As per article 108, a Joint sitting is notified by the President as his/ her intention to summon the both the houses for the purpose
of voting and deliberating on the bill in the following situations:
 Bill has been passed by one House and transferred to the other House and it is rejected by the other House
 Both houses have disagreed as to the amendments to be made in the Bill at the end
 More than 6 months have passed from the date of the reception of the Bill by the other House without the Bill being passed by it.
 Please note that if there is a dead heat between the two houses on a Constitution amendment Bill, there cannot be a joint sitting.
 Some other important notes
 A bill pending in other house for more than 6 months is deemed to be rejected but does not mean that a bill gets expired.
 The bill which gets lapses due to dissolution of the Lok Sabha, gets Lapses and in this case no joint sitting is called.
 Further course of action is as follows:
 In the joint sitting, the debated provisions are either fully accepted or fully rejected.
 For this, a simple majority is required. This means that if more than half of the members of both the houses present at floor at that
time if accept the disputed provisions, the provisions are accepted completely or if reject, the provisions are rejected completely.

14. BILL TO LAW (5/5)
 A bill that is passed by both the houses of the parliament in forwarded to the speaker. The speaker signs it and now the bill is
forwarded to the president of assent. This is the final stage of a bill. If the president gives approval to the bill, it becomes a Law. Once
it becomes a law, it gets entered into the statue book and published in Gazette.
 However, the President may take the following more courses of actions:
 The president sends the bill to the house. If the president sends the bill, the whole procedure is opened again and it will take the same
steps as mentioned above.
 The president refuse to give his assent, this would mark the end of the bill.
 Important Points
 A bill does not get lapsed on prorogation of the house. All the bills pending in Lok Sabha get lapsed when Lok Sabha is dissolved.
 If a bill has been passed by Lok Sabha and is pending in Rajya Sabha, it will expire if Lok Sabha dissolves.
 Bill not passed by Lok Sabha but pending in Rajya Sabha does not expire if Lok Sabha dissolves.
 A bill passed by Rajya Sabha and pending in Lok Sabha will expire if Lok Sabha dissolves.

15. JUDICIAL DECISIONS

16. INTRODUCTION
 Judicial precedent is defined as the process from where the judges follows
the previous cases where the facts are of similar types . The doctrine of
judicial precedent involves an application of the principle to stand by the
decision. In practice, this means that the higher courts are bounded to apply
for the legal principles which were set down by the higher courts in the
previous cases. This mostly provides consistency and predictability in the
law system.

17. RATIO DECIDENDI &
OBITER DICTUM
 The decision or judgement made by a judge may fall into two parts: the ratio decidendi and obiter dictum .
 RATIO DECIDENDI - The ratio decidendi of a case is the principle of law in which a decision is based. When a
judge delivers a judgement of a particular case ,he sketched out the details that he finds have been proved on the
evidence provided by the witness. After that he applies the law to the important facts and arrives at a decision, for
which he gives the reason .
 OBITER DICTUM - The judge may go on to speculate about what his decision would or should be or might have
been if the details of the case had been different. This is an obiter dictum
 The binding part of this type of judicial decision is the ratio decidendi. An obiter dictum is not binding in the cases
after that because it was not strictly relevant to the matter in the issue of the original case. However, an obiter dictum
may be of persuasive authority in some cases.
 A difficulty arises in that, although the judge will give reasons for his/her decision, he/she will not always say what
the ratio decidendi is, and it is then up to the later judge to "elicit" the ratio of the ongoing case. There may be
disagreement over what the ratio is and there can be more than one ratio.

18. THE HOUSE OF LORDS
 This is the highest court in a country unless a matter related to that of EC law is involved.
 The House of Lords was bound by their own decisions until 1966 when Lord Gardiner LC
announced a change in the practice. We stated that although the House of Lords would
treat its decisions as normal binding , it would depart from these when it appears the right
to do so. This power has been used sparingly.
 A decision made by the House of Lords binds all lower courts.

19. CIVIL DIVISION
 The Court of Appeal is bound by decisions made by the House of Lords even if they considers them to
be wrong.
 In the Court of Appeal held that it was bound by its own previous case decisions to the following
three exceptions:
 Where its own previous decisions conflict, the Court of Appeal should decide where to follow and
where to reject.
 The Court of Appeal must refuse to follow a decision of its own which cannot withstand a decision
made by the House of Lords even though its decision had not been expressly overruled by the House
of Lords.
 The Court of Appeal do not follow a decision of its own if satisfied then it was given per incuriam.
 Decisions of the Court of Appeal itself are permanent on the High Court and the county courts.

20. CRIMINAL DIVISION
 In this principle there is no difference in the application of stare decisis in the civil and
criminal divisions of the Court of Appeal. In practice, however, in addition to the Young
exceptions, because a person's liberty may be at stake, precedent is not followed as
inflexible in the criminal division.
 In the Court of Appeal held that in the questions involving the liberty of the subject if a full
court considered that the law has either been misused or misunderstood then it must be
reconsidered in the previous decision.

21. THE HIGH COURT
 The High Court is bound by both , the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords but it is not
bound by the decisions of High Court . However, they are of strong convincing authority in
the High Court and are usually followed.
 Decisions made by individual High Court judges are binding on their own county courts.
 A Divisional Court is hurdled by both , the House of Lords and the Court of Appeal . They
normally follows a earlier decision of another Divisional Court but may depart from it if
they believes that the previous decision was wrong .

22. PERSUASIVE PRECEDENTS
 A persuasive precedent is the one which is not absolutely binding on the court but which may be
applied. The following are some examples:
 Decisions made by the English courts are lower in the hierarchy. For example, the House of Lords
may follow the Court of Appeal decision and the Court of appeal may follow the High Court made
decision . Although they are not strictly bound to do so.
 Decisions are made by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
 Decisions of the courts in Scotland, Ireland, the Commonwealths which includes Australia, Canada ,
New Zealand, and the USA. These are usually cited where there is a shortage or fully lack in English
authority at a point.

23. ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES
OF PRECEDENT

24. ADVANTAGES
 There is sureness in the law. By looking at existing examples it is possible to forecast ,
what a decision will be and then plan accordingly to it.
 There is constancy in the law. Similar cases will be treated in the identical way. This is
important to give the system a feeling of justice and to make the system bearable to the
public.
 Judicial precedent is adjustable. There are a number of ways to avoid precedents and this
enables the system to change in many way and to adapt to new situations.
 Judicial precedent is always practical in nature. It is based on real/universal facts, unlike
the legislation system.
 Judicial precedent is always given in detailed. There are plenty of cases to which to refer.

25. DISADVANTAGES
 Difficulties can emerge in deciding what the ratio decidendi is, especially if there are
various reasons.
 There may be a long period wait for a case to come to court for a verdict to be decided.
 Cases can easily be differentiable on their facts to avoid following an unsuitable precedent.
 There is far too much case based on different laws and is too complex for understanding.

26. Thank You