Maharashtra Civil Judge (JD) & JMFC cheat sheet

Section 9: civil courts have jurisdiction to try all suits of a civil nature except those expressly or impliedly barred; a suit is of a civil nature if it involves a civil right, such as a right to property or to an office.

Section 15: a suit is instituted where the subject matter is situate; Section 16 governs suits for recovery of immovable property, partition, foreclosure, sale and redemption, where the property is situate.

Order VII Rule 11: the plaint is rejected where it discloses no cause of action, the relief is undervalued, the court fee is insufficient, or the suit appears barred by law.

Order II Rule 2: a plaintiff must include the whole of his claim in one suit; a portion relinquished cannot be sued for later, and a subsequent suit on the same cause of action is barred.

Order VI Rule 17: amendment may be allowed at any stage, but after the trial has commenced no amendment is permitted unless the court concludes that it cannot decide the real question in controversy without it.

Order VIII Rule 1: the written statement is to be filed within 30 days of service of summons, extendable up to 90 days on payment of costs; Order VIII Rule 6 permits set-off and Rule 6A a counter-claim.

Order XXXIX Rules 1 and 2: temporary injunction rests on a prima facie case, irreparable injury not compensable in damages, and the balance of convenience; Rule 3 requires reasons for granting an ex parte injunction.

Section 100: a second appeal lies only where the case involves a substantial question of law, which must be formulated by the High Court at the time of admission.

Section 47: all questions relating to the execution, discharge or satisfaction of a decree are determined by the executing court and not by a separate suit; Section 80 requires two months' notice before suing the Government.

Section 154: information relating to a cognizable offence is reduced to writing, read over to the informant, signed by him, and a free copy is given forthwith; entry in a station diary book does not constitute an FIR.

Section 161: statements made to a police officer in the course of investigation are not signed and, under Section 162, cannot be used as evidence except to contradict a prosecution witness with the leave of the court.

Section 164: a confession must be recorded by a Magistrate after warning the accused that he is not bound to make it; a confession recorded by a police officer is inadmissible.

Section 167(2): the accused must be produced before a Magistrate within 24 hours of arrest; detention pending investigation is authorised for 15 days at a time, with a charge-sheet due within 60 days or 90 days, failing which default bail follows.

Section 190: a Magistrate may take cognizance of an offence upon a complaint, a police report, or information received from a person other than a police officer.

Sections 239, 240 and 245: the court discharges the accused where the charge is groundless; in a sessions trial the charge is framed under Section 228, and in a warrant case under Section 240.

Sections 437 and 439: bail discretion turns on the nature of the accusation, the evidence, the risk of absconding and of tampering; Section 437 governs Magistrates and Section 439 the Sessions Court and High Court.

Section 374: appeals from a Magistrate's conviction lie to the Sessions Court where the sentence is seven years or less, and to the High Court where the sentence exceeds seven years or is capital.

Section 482: the High Court may exercise inherent powers to give effect to an order under the Code, to prevent abuse of process, or otherwise to secure the ends of justice; Section 397(2) bars revision of interlocutory orders.

Culpable homicide under Section 299 becomes murder under Section 300 only if the act falls within one of the four clauses and is not covered by any of the five exceptions; the distinction turns on the degree of intention and knowledge.

Exception 1 to Section 300 covers grave and sudden provocation; Exception 4 covers a sudden fight in the heat of passion without premeditation; Exception 5 covers death caused with the consent of a person above eighteen.

Section 302 prescribes death or imprisonment for life plus fine for murder; Section 304 punishes culpable homicide not amounting to murder, Part I for intention and Part II for knowledge.

Section 34 creates joint liability where two or more persons act in furtherance of a common intention, requiring a prior meeting of minds, presence and participation; Section 149 covers offences committed by any member of an unlawful assembly of five or more in prosecution of the common object.

Section 84 exempts an act done by a person of unsound mind who, by reason of that unsoundness, is incapable of knowing the nature of the act or that it is wrong or contrary to law; the defence follows the McNaughten rules.

Section 80 covers accidents in the doing of a lawful act by lawful means, Section 81 necessity and compulsion, Section 82 acts of a child under seven, Section 83 acts of a child between seven and twelve who has not attained sufficient maturity.

Theft under Section 378 is dishonest removal of movable property without consent; extortion under Section 383; robbery under Section 390 is theft or extortion aggravated by hurt or fear of instant hurt; dacoity under Section 391 is robbery by five or more persons.

Criminal breach of trust is defined in Section 405 and punished in Sections 406 to 409; cheating is defined in Section 415 and punished under Section 417, with Section 420 for cheating and thereby dishonestly inducing delivery of property.

Section 498A punishes cruelty by a husband or his relatives; Section 304B punishes dowry death within seven years of marriage, supported by the presumption in Section 113B of the Evidence Act.

Section 3 defines 'proved', 'disproved' and 'not proved'; Section 4 classifies presumptions as 'may presume' (discretionary), 'shall presume' (mandatory) and conclusive proof.

Relevancy is governed by Sections 5 to 55; Section 6 admits facts forming part of the same transaction (res gestae), and Section 8 admits motive, preparation and conduct.

Sections 25 and 26 bar proof of a confession made to a police officer or made by an accused in police custody; Section 27 saves so much of the information as distinctly relates to a fact thereby discovered.

Section 32 admits statements of persons who are dead or cannot be produced, including dying declarations as to the cause of death or the circumstances of the transaction resulting in death.

Section 45 admits the opinion of experts; Section 47 proves handwriting by a person acquainted with it; Section 73 empowers the court to direct any person present to write for comparison.

Section 60 requires oral evidence to be direct, that is, the witness must speak to facts perceived by his own senses; hearsay is therefore inadmissible.

Sections 101 to 104 allocate the burden of proof; Section 105 places on the accused the burden of proving circumstances bringing the case within a general exception, and Section 106 deals with facts especially within the knowledge of a person.

Section 112 makes the birth of a child during a valid marriage conclusive proof of legitimacy unless the parties had no access to each other; Sections 113A and 113B raise presumptions as to abetment of suicide and dowry death.

Sections 137 and 138 prescribe examination-in-chief, cross-examination and re-examination; Section 141 permits leading questions in cross-examination, Section 145 permits contradiction by a previous statement, and Section 133 with Section 114(b) requires corroboration of an accomplice.

Section 10 of the Contract Act requires free consent, competency of parties, lawful consideration, a lawful object, and the agreement must not be declared void; Section 11 fixes the age of majority at eighteen.

Section 23 makes an agreement void where the object is forbidden by law, defeats the provisions of a law, is fraudulent, involves injury to person or property, or is opposed to public policy.

Section 56 makes a contract void on supervening impossibility or unlawfulness; commercial hardship, increased cost or partial difficulty of performance does not amount to frustration.

Section 73 measures damages for loss naturally arising in the usual course or which the parties knew would likely result; Section 74 allows reasonable compensation not exceeding the sum named where a sum is stipulated.

After the 2018 amendment, Section 10 of the Specific Relief Act, 1963 provides that specific performance shall be enforced subject to Sections 11(2), 14 and 16; Section 16 lists personal bars such as having obtained substituted performance.

Section 54 of the Transfer of Property Act: a sale of tangible immovable property of the value of one hundred rupees and upwards can be made only by a registered instrument; Section 58 defines mortgage and Section 60 confers the right of redemption.

Section 52 embodies lis pendens, making a transfer of a suit property during pendency subject to the decree; Section 53A protects a transferee in possession under a written contract who has performed his part.

Section 105 defines lease and Section 106 provides for a notice to quit in the absence of a contract; Section 41 protects a transfer by an ostensible owner with the consent of the real owner.

Section 4 of the Indian Easements Act, 1882 defines an easement as a right to use or restrict the use of another's land for the beneficial enjoyment of one's own; Section 15 allows acquisition by prescription by twenty years' peaceable, open enjoyment as of right.

Section 5 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 requires monogamy, soundness of mind, the ages of twenty-one for the bridegroom and eighteen for the bride, absence of a prohibited relationship, and absence of sapinda relationship within the stated degrees.

Section 13 lists the grounds of divorce available to both spouses and special grounds for the wife; Section 13B permits divorce by mutual consent; Section 9 covers restitution of conjugal rights and Section 24 interim maintenance.

Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, as substituted in 2005, makes a daughter a coparcener by birth in the same manner as a son, with equal rights and liabilities; Section 14 makes property held by a female Hindu absolute.

Section 8 of the Hindu Succession Act lays down the general rules of succession for a male intestate, in the order of Class I heirs, Class II heirs, agnates and cognates.

Section 6 of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 requires the consent of the wife for a male Hindu to adopt; Section 11 lists the conditions for a valid adoption; Section 9 dispenses with datta homam.

Essentials of a Muslim marriage are ijab and qabul between the parties, the presence of witnesses, and absence of a prohibited relationship; mahr is a legal consequence of marriage, not a condition of its validity.

Dissolution of Muslim marriage may occur by talaq, khula, mubaraat or talaq-e-tafweez; the Shariat Act, 1937 governs succession, marriage, dower and divorce for Muslims.

Section 63 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 requires a will to be in writing, signed by the testator and attested by at least two witnesses; Section 68 of the Evidence Act requires proof by an attesting witness where attestation is required by law.

The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986 entitles a divorced woman to a reasonable and fair provision and maintenance from her former husband for and during the iddat period.

Article 12 defines 'the State' to include the Government and Parliament of India, State Governments and Legislatures, local authorities and other authorities; Article 13 renders laws inconsistent with Part III void.

Article 14 guarantees equality before the law and the equal protection of laws; a classification is valid only if there is an intelligible differentia with a rational nexus to the object sought to be achieved.

Article 21 protects life and personal liberty, and has been expanded to include the right to privacy, dignity, fair procedure, speedy trial and legal aid; Article 21A guarantees free education to children aged six to fourteen.

Article 22 requires that an arrested person be informed of the grounds of arrest, be allowed to consult a legal practitioner, and be produced before the nearest Magistrate within twenty-four hours.

Article 32 empowers the Supreme Court to issue the five writs for enforcement of fundamental rights; Article 226 empowers the High Court to issue them for fundamental rights as well as other legal rights.

The five writs are habeas corpus (produce the body), mandamus (command performance of a public duty), prohibition (prevent excess of jurisdiction), certiorari (quash an order), and quo warranto (question authority to hold a public office).

Article 311(2) bars dismissal, removal or reduction in rank without an inquiry affording an opportunity of hearing on the charges; the proviso permits dispensing with the inquiry on conviction, impracticability or security of the State.

Article 141 makes the law declared by the Supreme Court binding on all courts; Article 137 confers review power; Article 300A prohibits deprivation of property save by authority of law.

The Maharashtra Rent Control Act, 1999 repealed the Bombay Rents, Hotel and Lodging House Rates Control Act, 1947 and the corresponding rent legislation applicable to the Hyderabad and Vidarbha regions.

Section 16 of the Maharashtra Rent Control Act, 1999 sets out the grounds on which a landlord may recover possession, including bona fide and reasonable requirement of the premises for himself or his family, judged along with comparative hardship of the tenant.

Jurisdiction over rent proceedings lies with the Court of Small Causes in Greater Mumbai and with the Civil Judge, Junior Division, elsewhere; a suit for possession against a tenant ordinarily lies only before that forum.

Section 34 of the Maharashtra Stamp Act, 1958 makes an instrument not duly stamped inadmissible in evidence until it is impounded and the deficient duty together with a penalty is paid.

Under Section 3 read with Schedule I of the Maharashtra Stamp Act, 1958 duty on conveyances is computed on the market value of the property, assessed ordinarily from the ready reckoner rates published by the State.

Under the Maharashtra Court-fees Act, 1959, court fee on a plaint in a money suit is ad valorem on the amount claimed; a deficient court fee is curable, and the plaint is liable to rejection if it is not made good within the time allowed.

Section 17 of the Registration Act, 1908 makes registration compulsory for gifts, sales of immovable property, leases exceeding one year and mortgages; Section 49 makes an unregistered document inadmissible to create or extinguish an interest in immovable property.

Under Section 32 of the Maharashtra Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1948 the tenant became entitled to purchase the land from the landlord; Section 43 restricts transfers of agricultural land and of fragments without the Collector's sanction.

Under the Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act, 1963 the promoter must enter into a written agreement with the flat purchaser (Section 4) and convey title to the organisation of flat purchasers (Section 11).

Negligence requires a duty of care owed by the defendant to the plaintiff, breach of that duty measured against the standard of the reasonable person, causation, and damage that is not too remote.

Res ipsa loquitur applies where the accident is of a kind that does not ordinarily occur without negligence, the instrumentality was in the defendant's exclusive control, and the plaintiff's own conduct is not implicated; it shifts the evidential burden.

Rylands v Fletcher imposes strict liability for escape of a dangerous thing brought onto land in the course of a non-natural use; defences include act of God, act of a stranger and the plaintiff's consent.

A master is vicariously liable for the torts of a servant committed in the course of employment, but not generally for those of an independent contractor; the 'course of employment' test distinguishes authorised acts from independent frolics.

Defamation comprises libel, actionable per se, and slander, which requires special damage except in the recognised categories; defences include truth, fair comment, absolute privilege and qualified privilege.

Defences to tortious liability include volenti non fit injuria, contributory negligence with apportionment of damages, inevitable accident, act of God, statutory authority and private defence.

Remoteness of damage follows the Wagon Mound principle that a defendant is liable only for damage of a kind reasonably foreseeable, even if the extent is greater than anticipated.

Austin treats law as the command of a sovereign backed by a sanction; Kelsen's pure theory derives the validity of every norm from a presupposed grundnorm; Hart explains a legal system through primary rules of obligation and secondary rules, chiefly the rule of recognition.

Theories of punishment are deterrent, retributive, preventive, reformative and expiatory; stare decisis makes the ratio decidendi binding while obiter dicta is only persuasive; Hohfeld analyses rights as correlatives of duties, privileges, powers and immunities.

Section 4 of the Sale of Goods Act, 1930 distinguishes a sale, where property passes immediately, from an agreement to sell, where transfer is to take place at a future time or subject to a condition.

Section 12 distinguishes a condition, whose breach entitles the buyer to repudiate, from a warranty, whose breach gives rise only to damages; under Section 13 a breach of condition may be treated as a breach of warranty.

Section 16 implies conditions as to fitness for a particular purpose where the buyer makes the purpose known and relies on the seller's skill, and as to merchantable quality; caveat emptor applies only where the buyer examines the goods and defects ought to have been revealed.

Section 27 embodies nemo dat quod non habet; Sections 45 to 46 give the unpaid seller a lien and a right of stoppage in transit, and Section 50 permits resale in specified circumstances.

Section 4 of the Indian Partnership Act, 1932 defines partnership as the relation between persons who have agreed to share the profits of a business carried on by all or any of them acting for all; Section 18 makes a partner the agent of the firm.

Section 25 makes every partner jointly and severally liable for acts of the firm done while he is a partner; Section 30 permits a minor to be admitted to the benefits of partnership, his liability being limited to his share.

Section 69 of the Partnership Act bars a suit to enforce a right arising from a contract by or on behalf of an unregistered firm until the firm is registered.

Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 makes dishonour of a cheque for insufficiency of funds an offence where a demand notice is given within thirty days of intimation of dishonour and payment is not made within fifteen days of receipt; the complaint must be filed within one month thereafter.

Under the Companies Act, 2013 a private company under Section 2(68) restricts transfer of shares, limits members to two hundred and prohibits public invitation for securities; Sections 241 and 242 provide relief against oppression and mismanagement.

Order VI Rule 1 defines 'pleading' as a plaint or a written statement; Rule 2 requires every pleading to state only the material facts on which the party relies and not the evidence by which they are to be proved.

Order VI Rule 15 requires pleadings to be verified by the party or by a person acquainted with the facts; a defect in verification is curable and does not justify rejection of the plaint.

Order VII Rule 1 prescribes the contents of a plaint: the name and description of the parties, the cause of action and when it arose, the jurisdiction of the court, the valuation for court fee and jurisdiction, and the relief claimed.

Order VIII Rule 1 allows thirty days from service of summons for filing a written statement, extendable up to ninety days; Order VIII Rule 10 permits the court to pronounce judgment where no written statement is filed.

Order XX Rule 1 requires a judgment to contain a concise statement of the case, the points for determination, the decision on each point and the reasons for the decision; the decree follows under Order XX Rule 6.

An advocate must not appear for both sides of a dispute, must not use information received in confidence against a former client, and must not mislead the court or suppress material documents and authorities.

Under Section 35 of the Advocates Act, 1961 the State Bar Council may reprimand, suspend or remove an advocate from the roll for professional misconduct; Section 30 confers the right to practise throughout India.

Section 2 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 defines civil contempt as wilful disobedience of a court order and criminal contempt as scandalising the court or prejudicing judicial proceedings; Section 12 prescribes simple imprisonment up to six months or fine up to two thousand rupees or both.

A party may plead alternative and inconsistent sets of facts, but leave of the court is required to raise a plea inconsistent with a previous pleading; the relief claimed must be specific and capable of execution.