3. Sources of Indian Law
Custom
Legal
Local
General
Conventional
Precedent
Binding
Persuasive
Legislation
Primary
Legislation
Secondary
Legislation
4. REQUISITES OF VALID
CUSTOM
1. Antiquity: Custom must be in existence from
time immemorial
2. Continuity: Should have been continuously
in existence from the time immemorial
Example - Saptapadi
5. REQUISITES OF VALID
CUSTOM…
3. Reasonable: It must be useful and
convenient to the society.
4. Certainty: If a custom is vague or ambiguous
it cannot be considered as a valid source of
law.
5. Consistency: Difference or inconsistency in
custom will amount to different rule of
conduct for a given situation
6. Peaceful Enjoyment: enjoyed peaceably
without any dispute in a law court or
otherwise
6. REQUISITES OF VALID
CUSTOM…
7. Conformity with statute law: All customs which
are opposed to an existing legislation will be
treated as invalid customs
For example, jalli-kattu,
a customary sport of tamil nadu
banned by the supreme court
because it is not in conformity
with constitution
8. Not opposed public morality: All those
customs and practices which are opposed to
public morality are illegal
8. KINDS OF PRECEDENTS
Precedents
Original
precedents which
create law
Declaratory
Precedents
precedents which
merely apply
established rules
of law to the
particular facts of
the cases
Authoritative
Precedents
All inferior courts
shall follow the
decision of
superior courts
Persuasive
Precedents
no obligation to
follow but may
take precedence
into consideration
9. REASONS FOR CONSIDERING
PRECEDENT AS A SOURCE
Reasonsfor
ConsideringPrecedent
asaSource
Final settlement of an Issue
Bring certainty
Bring flexibility to law
Open scope for Judge made law
Bring scientific development to law
Helps in guiding lower courts
10. LEGISLATION
Word legislation is derived from two Latin
words, ‘legis’ and ‘latum’. The former means
law and the latter means to make
11. CLASSIFICATION OF
LEGISLATION
Supreme
• Adopted by supreme
authority of the state
• Eg. Parliament or
State Legislature
Subordina
te
• Dependent for its
continued existence
and validity on some
superior or supreme
authority
• Eg. Delegated
Legislation
Classification
of Legislation
