MP Civil Judge cheat sheet

Section 9 CPC: a civil court has jurisdiction to try all suits of a civil nature unless their cognizance is expressly or impliedly barred; the burden of proving a bar lies on the party asserting it.

Order II Rule 2 CPC: a plaintiff who omits to sue for a relief arising from the same cause of action, and later sues for it, is barred - but the bar applies only when the omitted relief is based on the same cause of action and the earlier suit was decided on merits.

Section 11 CPC res judicata requires: a former suit decided by a competent court, the same parties or their privies, the same subject matter, and the same title; a decree of a court lacking jurisdiction creates no bar.

Section 34 CPC: interest may be awarded at a rate the court deems reasonable, and where no rate is specified, the court may award interest at the current rate of interest (as defined in the Interest Act, 1978) from the date of the decree.

Specific Relief Act Section 16(c): relief of specific performance is discretionary; the plaintiff must plead and prove readiness and willingness to perform the contract from the date of the contract onwards.

Section 14 of the Specific Relief Act bars specific performance of contracts for personal qualifications or volition, and of contracts whose performance involves continuous supervision by the court.

Limitation: under Article 54 of the Limitation Act, a suit for specific performance must be filed within three years from the date fixed for performance, or, if no date is fixed, from the date the plaintiff has notice of refusal.

Transfer of Property Act Section 54: a sale of tangible immovable property of value Rs. 100 and above can be made only by a registered instrument; delivery of possession suffices only below that value.

Order VIII Rule 6 CPC: a set-off is a written claim by the defendant against the plaintiff's demand, arising from an ascertained sum legally recoverable and within the same jurisdiction, and it operates as a cross-suit.

Section 300 IPC (now Section 101 BNS): culpable homicide becomes murder when the act falls within one of the four clauses - intention to cause death, intention to cause such bodily injury as the offender knows is likely to cause death, injury sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death, or knowledge that the act is so imminently dangerous that it must cause death.

Exception 1 to murder (sudden provocation) requires that the provocation was not sought by the offender and was grave and sudden enough to deprive an ordinary person of self-control; the offender's retaliation must occur before passion cools.

Section 84 IPC (now Section 22 BNS): an act is not an offence if done by a person of unsound mind who, at the time, is incapable of knowing the nature of the act or that it is wrong or contrary to law - the burden of proving this lies on the accused under Section 105 of the Evidence Act.

Section 304 IPC (now Section 105 BNS) punishes culpable homicide not amounting to murder in two parts: Part I for acts with intention to cause death or injury likely to cause death, Part II for acts with knowledge but without such intention.

Section 149 IPC (now Section 190 BNS): every member of an unlawful assembly is vicariously liable for an offence committed in prosecution of the common object; mere presence as a member suffices, and no overt act is needed.

Section 34 IPC (now Section 3(5) BNS) requires a common intention and participation in furtherance of it; it creates joint liability but does not create a distinct offence, so a charge under the substantive offence plus Section 34 is valid.

Section 302 IPC prescribes death or imprisonment for life plus fine for murder; under the Bachan Singh framework, life imprisonment is the rule and death the exception, reserved for the rarest of rare cases.

Theft under Section 378 IPC (now Section 303 BNS) requires a dishonest intention to take movable property out of the possession of another without consent; the taking must be in the course of the act, not subsequent.

Criminal conspiracy under Section 120A IPC (now Section 61 BNS) requires an agreement between two or more persons to commit an illegal act or a legal act by illegal means; a mere intention or knowledge is insufficient.

Section 3 of the Evidence Act defines 'proved' as when, after considering the matters before it, the court either believes the fact to exist or considers its existence so probable that a prudent man ought to act upon the supposition that it exists.

Section 101 places the burden of proof on the party who would fail if no evidence were given on either side; Section 102 holds that the burden lies on the party who asserts a fact, not on the party who denies it.

Section 105: when an accused claims the benefit of a general exception (e.g., insanity, private defence), the burden of proving its existence lies on the accused, though not as heavily as on the prosecution.

Section 25 bars confessions made to a police officer, and Section 26 bars confessions made in police custody unless made in the immediate presence of a magistrate; Section 27 admits so much of the information as leads to the discovery of a fact.

Section 32(1) admits a dying declaration as to the cause of the declarant's death; it is admissible even without corroboration if the court finds it truthful, and it need not be recorded by a magistrate.

Section 45 admits the opinion of experts on foreign law, science, art, handwriting, and finger impressions; the opinion is advisory and not binding on the court.

Section 65 permits secondary evidence of a document only where the original is shown to be in the possession of the opposite party, lost, destroyed, or not easily movable, or is a public document.

Section 65B: electronic records require a certificate from a person occupying a responsible official position identifying the record and describing the manner of production; without it, the electronic record is inadmissible.

Section 114 permits the court to presume the existence of probable facts, including that official acts are regularly performed and that evidence withheld by a party would have been unfavourable to that party.

Article 13: laws inconsistent with Part III are void; 'law' includes ordinances, orders, bye-laws, rules, regulations, notifications, and customs, but not a constitutional amendment, per the Kesavananda basic structure doctrine.

Article 14: the state shall not deny equality before the law or equal protection of the laws; reasonable classification is permitted if it has a rational nexus to the object sought to be achieved.

Article 21: no person shall be deprived of life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law; after Maneka Gandhi, that procedure must be fair, just, and reasonable.

Article 32: the right to move the Supreme Court for enforcement of Part III rights is itself a fundamental right and cannot be suspended except as provided by the Constitution (Article 359).

Article 226: High Courts may issue writs for enforcement of fundamental rights and for any other purpose; the jurisdiction is wider than Article 32 but discretionary, not a matter of right.

Article 20(3): no person accused of an offence shall be compelled to be a witness against himself; the protection extends to compulsory testimonial self-incrimination, not to physical evidence such as fingerprints.

Article 22(1)-(2): an arrested person must be informed of the grounds of arrest and allowed to consult a legal practitioner, and must be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours; these do not apply to preventive detention under Article 22(3).

Article 311(2): a civil servant cannot be dismissed, removed, or reduced in rank except after an inquiry with a reasonable opportunity of being heard; the proviso permits dispensation where a further inquiry is not reasonably practicable.

Basic structure (Kesavananda Bharati): Parliament's amending power under Article 368 cannot destroy the essential features of the Constitution, such as judicial review, federalism, secularism, and free and fair elections.