CLAT 2020 | Legal Reasoning

Legal Reasoning | Previous Year Questions

CLAT Legal Reasoning

As the name indicates, CLAT Legal Reasoning section has a distinct element of law. To crack these questions, ideally, a candidate has to keep reading any news and opinion articles from at least one newspaper. A basic idea regarding the Current Affairs of legal issues will drastically improve the reading speed and comprehension. Though deeper understanding of law is not mandatory, keeping oneself abreast of the current happenings will prove to a competitive edge. The passages have been selected carefully to encompass a legal context in them.

As with the CLAT Logical Reasoning section and the CLAT English Language section, adequate attention has been given to ensure the passages are from a range of topics. Needless to say, the questions are pegged exactly at the level of difficulty of CLAT, with an eye on the samples published by the Consortium of NLUs.

Enough said. In for some serious Legal Reasoning? Let’s get cracking!

CLAT 2020 Legal Reasoning: India – Natural Justice

Principle of Natural Justice is derived from the word 'Jus Natural' of the Roman law and it is closely related to Common law and moral principles but is not codified. It is a law of nature which is not derived from any statute or constitution. The principle of Natural Justice is adhered to by all the citizens of civilised State with Supreme importance. Natural justice simply means to make a sensible and reasonable decision making procedure on a particular issue. Sometimes, it doesn‘t matter what is the reasonable decision but in the end, what matters is the procedure and who all are engaged in taking the reasonable decision. It is not restricted within the concept of 'fairness' it has different colours and shades which vary from the context. Basically, natural justice consists of 3 rules.

The first one is “Hearing rule” which states that the person or party who is affected by the decision made by the Panel of expert members should be given a fair opportunity to express his point of view to defend himself. Secondly, “Bias rule” generally expresses that Panel of expert should be free from bias while taking the decision. The decision should be given in a free and fair manner which can fulfil the rule of natural justice. And thirdly, “Reasoned Decision” which states that order, decision or judgement of the Court given by the Presiding authorities with a valid and reasonable ground. The principles of Natural Justice have been adopted and followed by the judiciary to protect public rights against the arbitrary decision by the administrative authority. One can easily see that the rule of natural justice include the concept of fairness: they stay alive and support to safeguard the fair dealing.
Source: Excerpt taken from blog.ipleaders.in (Dated - 12th June, 2019)

Which of the following is not in violation of the principles of Natural justice?

  1. Withholding of an increment of a public servant without giving him an opportunity to defend
  2. Non-renewal of a contract of employment of an employee after the period of contract is over.
  3. Initiating a departmental inquiry against a public servant, without giving him an opportunity to submit representation during such inquiry.
  4. All of the above.

Explanatory Answer

The parties which will be affected by the justice process must receive an opportunity to express their point of view – hence options (a) and (c) are in violation of the ‘hearing rule’.

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