MODULE II

SOURCES OF LEGAL MATERIALS

PRIMARY SOURCES

 Primary Legal Materials - Legislations and Cases

 Term legislation used in wide sense- includes the Constitution,
Constitutional amendments, Acts, Rules, Ordinances, Regulations and
Notifications.
 Government Gazette / Official Gazette
 A periodical publication authorised to publish public or legal notices.
 Gazette of India
 Published by the Department of Publication under the Ministry of Housing
and Urban Affairs.
 Printed by the Government of India Printing Press ( Owned and managed by
the government of India)
 Ordinary gazettes are regularly published weekly.
 Extraordinary Gazettes are published every day depending upon the urgency
of the matters to be notified.
 Central legislations are published in the Gazette of India and State legislations
are published in the State Gazettes
• Contents published in the Gazette of India
• PART I
• Section 1: Notifications relating to Non-Statutory Rules, Regulations, Orders and Resolutions issued by the
Ministries of the Government of India (other than the Ministry of Defence) and by the Supreme Court of
India.
•
• Section 2: Notifications regarding Appointments, Promotions, Leave etc. of Government Officers issued by the
Ministries of the Government of India (other than the Ministry of Defence) and by the Supreme Court of
India.
•
• Section 3: Notifications relating to Resolutions and Non-Statutory Orders issued by the Ministry of Defence.
•
• Section 4: Notifications regarding Appointments, Promotions, Leave etc. of Government Officers issued by the
Ministry of Defence.
•
• PART II
• Section 1 :Acts, Ordinances and Regulations.
• Section 1 A:(Hindi) Authoritative texts in Hindi languages of Acts, Ordinances and Regulations.

• Section 2:Bills and Reports of the Select Committee on Bills.

• Section 3:
• Sub Section (i) General Statutory Rules (including Orders, By laws etc. of general character) issued by the Ministries of the
Government of India (other than the Ministry of Defence) and by the Central Authorities (other than the Administration of Union
Territories).
• Sub Section (ii) Statutory Orders and Notifications issued by the Ministries of the Government of India (other than the Ministry of
Defence) and by the Central Authorities (other than the Administration of Union Territories).
• Sub Section (iii) Authoritative texts in Hindi (other than such texts, published in section 3 or section 4 of the Gazette of India of General
Statutory Rules and Statutory Orders (including Bye-laws of a general character) issued by the Ministries (including Ministry of
Defence) and by Central authorities (other than Administration of Union Territories).

• Section 4:Statutory Rules & orders issued by the Ministry of Defence.

• PART III
• Section 1: Notifications issued by the High Courts, the Comptroller and Auditor General, Union Public
Service Commission the Indian Government Railways and by Attached and Subordinate offices of the
Government of India.

• Section 2 :Notifications and Notices issued by the Patent Office, relating to Patents and Designs.

• Section 3 :Notifications issued by or under the authority of Chief Commissioners.

• Section 4;Miscellaneous Notifications including Notifications, Orders Advertisements and Notices issued
by Statutory Bodies.
• PART IV

• Advertisements and Notices issued by the Private Individuals and Private Bodies.

• PART V

• Supplement showing Statistics of Births and Deaths etc. both in English and Hindi.
• Importance of Gazette
• Authoritative, authentic, and accurate publication with regards to the functioning of
the Union/State Government, and its actions.
• Conventionally, only what’s there in the Gazette is accepted as the official record with
regards to the Government.
• An Act enters into force only after it’s published in the Gazette of India along with the
date of its effect. If a particular act is not notified, the Act is considered to have no
effect even if it has received the assent of the President.
• E gazette - http://egazette.nic.in
• Legislative Department, under Ministry of Law And Justice, Government
of India
• https://legislative.gov.in/documents/list-of-central-acts
• India Code – Digital repository of all central and State Acts
• https://www.indiacode.nic.in/
• State legislations available at State government websites
• E.g. https://kerala.gov.in/acts/rules

• Private publications
• E.g. Current Indian Statutes, Current Central Legislation, AdvocateKhoj Bare Acts;
Law reports like AIR, KLT in their Statute section
• Law Reports
• Publication of decisions is a condition necessary for the theory of precedent to operate-
makes law reporting necessary
• The Indian Law Reports Act of 1875
• Authorizes the publication of the reports of the cases decided by the high courts in the official
report.
• Provides that, “No Court shall be bound to hear cited, or shall receive or treat as an authority
binding on it the report of any case decided by any of the said High Courts on or after the said
day other than a report published under the authority of the Governor-General-in-Council.”
• Gives authenticity to the official reports – But not he authority of unpublished precedents
• The unusual delay in publication of official reports and incompleteness of the official
reports led to the publication of a large number of private reports.

• Now there are more than 300 law reports published in India.
Types of Law Reports
• Full-Text Law Reports
• Incorporate the entire judgement that has been given by the court along with a headnote
• Summary Reports
• Only include the summary of the case - less formal as compared to the full-text reports.
• Official Reports
• Published under the statutory authority.
• E.g. Supreme Court Reporter (S.C.R), Indian Law Reports (I.L.R.)
• Non-Official Reports
• Published by private/non-statutory authorities.
• E.g. Supreme Court Cases ( SCC ), All India Reporter (A.I.R.), Kerala Law Times ( K.L.T.), Judgment
Today (J.T.)
• All India Reports
• Accumulate and publish precedents from across states as well as the SC
• E.g. All India Reporter, Indian Law Reports, SCC, SCR
• State Specific Reports
• Confined to a particular state HC
• E.g. Allahabad Weekly Reporter, Kerala Law Times, ILR Patna
• Specialised Law Report
• Report cases from specific branches of law.
• E.g. Income Tax Reports, Criminal Law Journal ( Cri.L.J.),
Consumer Protection Journal ( C.P.J.), Accidents Claims Journal
( A.C.J.)
• Legal Databases
• E.g. Manupatra, LexisNexis, SCC Online

• Digest and Commentaries

• Common methods for finding the case laws on a subject
• Subject indexes given at the end of the commentaries are a very useful
aid to find out the desired case law on specific aspect.
• E.g. AIR Manual published by M/s All India Reporter, SCC CD ROM
 SECONDARY SOURCES

• Reports etc. of Committees, Commissions and other Statutory or Legislative

Bodies

• Books - Case Books, Textbooks, Law Dictionary, Commentaries

Encyclopaedia, Case Digests, Juristic Writings/Treatises, Law Review

Articles
• Law Commission Reports
• The function of the law commission is to study the existing laws, suggest amendments to the same if
necessary, and to make recommendations for enacting new laws. The recommendations for
amendment of the existing laws are made by the Commission either suo motu or on the request of the
government.
• While proposing any new enactment or proposing any amendment in the existing statute Law
Commission reports review the legal position on that particular aspect in India as well as in other
countries.
• They are treated as useful tools for ascertaining the legislative intent.
• https://lawcommissionofindia.nic.in/
• Contains the full text of law commission reports, a list of all law commission reports and
Parliamentary Committee Reports

 Parliamentary Committee means a Committee which is appointed or elected by the House or

nominated by the Speaker/ Chairman and which works under the direction of the Speaker /

Chairman and presents its report to the House or to the Speaker and the Secretariat for which is

provided by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.

• Sometimes, when a bill is introduced in either house of the Parliament it is referred to a

Parliamentary Committee which examines the bill and submits a report to the Parliament.

• Useful for ascertaining the legislative intent.

• https://eparlib.nic.in/handle/123456789/13 - provides the full text of the Reports by the

Parliamentary Committees of Lok Sabha.

• https://rajyasabha.nic.in/rsnew/Committee_site/report_search.aspx - that of Rajya sabha

Parliamentary debates

• Contain the speech given by the law minister at the time of introducing the bill and the specific
discussions in the House thereafter.

• The Original Version i.e. the verbatim reports of the Debates are available on the official Websites
under the heading Uncorrected Debates and Final Edited Debates.

• The debates can be accessed through various search parameters viz member wise, subject wise,
session/date wise, type of debate etc.

• https://eparlib.nic.in/full-text?handle=123456789/7&lok_sabha_no=1 – digital source of Lok

Sabha debates

• https://rajyasabha.nic.in/

• http://164.100.47.5/newsite/debatenew/newshow.aspx - verbatim debates

• http://164.100.47.5/newsite/floor_official_debate/floor_official_debate.aspx - official reports

Constituent Assembly Debates
• Lok Sabha Digital Library https://eparlib.nic.in/handle/123456789/760448 -
under the head Historical Debate
• Provisional Parliament Debates - The Constituent Assembly became the Provisional
Parliament and exercised all the powers and performed all the duties conferred by the
Constitution on the two Houses of Parliament and continued to do so until the two Houses
were duly constituted after the First General Elections held in 1952. This Section contains the
debate of the Provisional Parliament
• Constituent Assembly Draft Making Debates - On 29 August 1947, the Constituent Assembly
had set up a Drafting Committee under the Chairmanship of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. The
Constituent Assembly of India first met on the 9 December, 1946 and continued till 24
January, 1950. This Section contains the debate of Constituent Assembly
Textbooks

• Offer an elementary exposition of the principles of the topic covered for the purpose
of instructing its readers or refreshing their memory.

• Usually traces the historical development of the topic to some extent , discusses the
divergent rules , critiques cases and try to provide an overall picture of the law
involved.
Case Books
• A type of text book
• Difference from text book - Rather than simply laying out the legal doctrine in a
particular area of study, a casebook contains excerpts from legal cases in which the
law of that area was applied.
• Under each topic the author offers introductory comments and remarks. It explains
its scope and elements and supplements the discussion with edited versions of
important case laws and scholarly writings on the topic
Commentaries

• Books written primarily for legal practitioners to help in their profession- also called
Practitioners' Books.

• Emphasise on the practical aspects of the existing law rather than historical development,
theories or critical comments on the law .

• Commentaries on specific statutes follow a pattern in which each and every section or
article of that statute is analysed in a chronological order with exhaustive comments
incorporating case laws appended to each provision .
Law Dictionary

• A law dictionary defines and illustrates the meaning of words , terms and
phrases which are legal words or connected with law.

• Also cite or quote authorities for definitions- therefore serves as a case finder.
Legal Encyclopaedia

• Provides a complete and integrated statement of all the applicable law

• Contains comprehensive set of brief articles on legal topics.

• Arranged similarly to a general encyclopaedia, such as, with topical articles arranged
in alphabetical order.

• Also cites to the authority relied upon , which may references to cases in point, and also
digest of cases and excerpts from standard treatises .
Case Digests

• a vastly detailed subject index to law as set forth in reported cases.

• Its text is composed of a headnote paragraph, verbatim / paraphrased, which form the syllabi
or the headnote of a published law report.

• there are Yearly Digests , Biennial Digests , Quinquennial Digests , Decennial Digests etc.

• also classified into different types depending upon the subjects they deal with : general Digests
which cover case laws on all subjects / statutes as well as Digests covering case laws on specific
subjects / statutes / topics
Juristic Writings/Treatises

• Applies the expert knowledge and research facilities of the author to an exhaustive consideration
of the decided cases and statutes and sets down in connected literary form.

• Treatise traces the history of the law covered and its development along varying lines.

• Treatises on specific statutes follow a pattern in which each and every section or article of that
statute is analysed in a chronological order.

• points out the effect of statues or of cases overruling a line of earlier cases and analyses majority,
minority and jurisdictional rules and trends or needed changes.
Law review articles
• E.g.- Annual Survey of Indian Law, New Delhi: ILI, Journal
Indian Law Institute, Journal of Constitutional & Parliamentary
Studies, Indian Bar Review.
• Online – E.g. - Manupatra, Judis, Westlaw, Jstore, Westlaw
 STRUCTURE OF LEGISLATION

Title
• The title of the Act given on the top
• Index- showing the content of the Act- Sections, schedules etc.
Long Title and Preamble
• Serves as an introduction to the Act
• Preamble suggests the objective behind the Act and the Long title overall explains content of the it.
• In many Acts only either of these are present.
• E.g. -
1.The Indian Contract Act, 1872
• Preamble—WHEREAS it is expedient to define and amend certain parts of the law relating to
contracts
2. The Family Courts Act, 1984
• Long title - An Act to provide for the establishment of Family Courts with a view to promote
conciliation in, and secure speedy settlement of, disputes relating to marriage and family affairs
and for matters connected therewith.
3. The Arbitration And Conciliation Act, 1996
• Preamble.—WHEREAS the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)
has adopted the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration in 1985; AND
WHEREAS the General Assembly of the United Nations has recommended that all countries give
due consideration to the said Model Law, in view of the desirability of uniformity of the law of
arbitral procedures and the specific needs of international commercial arbitration practice; AND
WHEREAS the UNCITRAL has adopted the UNCITRAL Conciliation Rules in 1980; AND
WHEREAS the General Assembly of the United Nations has recommended the use of the said Rules
in cases where a dispute arises in the context of international commercial relations and the parties
seek an amicable settlement of that dispute by recourse to conciliation; AND WHEREAS the said
Model Law and Rules make significant contribution to the establishment of a unified legal
framework for the fair and efficient settlement of disputes arising in international commercial
relations; AND WHEREAS it is expedient to make law respecting arbitration and conciliation,
taking into account the aforesaid Model Law and Rules
• Long title - An Act to consolidate and amend the law relating to domestic arbitration, international
commercial arbitration and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards as also to define the law
relating to conciliation and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto
• Post Independence Acts in India contain an
introductory statement
• BE it enacted by the Parliament/…State legislature in the …..th
Year of the Republic of India as follows:
Short title, extent and commencement
• Short title clause- E.g. –
• This Act may be called the Indian Contract Act, 1872.
• Extent clause - deals generally with the territorial extent of operation of the Act
• E.g-
• The Indian Contract Act - It extends to the whole of India
• The Family Courts Act - It extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and
Kashmir.
• The Arbitration And Conciliation Act - It extends to the whole of India: Provided that
Parts I, III and IV shall extend to the State of Jammu and Kashmir only in so far as they
relate to international commercial arbitration or, as the case may be, international
commercial conciliation.
• In some Acts the extend clause also indicates its application in specific situations
• E.g. –
• IPC
1. Title and extent of operation of the Code.—This Act shall be called the Indian Penal Code, and shall
extend to the whole of India
2. Punishment of offences committed within India.—Every person shall be liable to punishment under
this Code and not otherwise for every act or omission contrary to the provisions thereof, of which he
shall be guilty within India.
3. Punishment of offences committed beyond, but which by law may be tried within, India.— Any
person liable, by any Indian law, to be tried for an offence committed beyond India shall be dealt with
according to the provisions of this Code for any act committed beyond India in the same manner as if
such act had been committed within India.
4. Extension of Code to extra-territorial offences.—The provisions of this Code apply also to any offence
committed by— (1) any citizen of India in any place without and beyond India; (2) any person on any
ship or aircraft registered in India wherever it may be.(3) any person in any place without and beyond
India committing offence targeting a computer resource located in India.
• The Divorce Act, 1869
This Act extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir .
Extent of power to grant relief generally, - Nothing hereinafter contained shall authorise
any Court to grant any relief under this Act except where the petitioner or respondent
professes the Christian religion, and to make decrees of dissolution, -or to make decrees of
dissolution of marriage except where the parties to the marriage are domiciled in India at
the time when the petition is presented, or of nullity. -or to make decrees of nullity of
marriage except where the marriage has been solemnized in India and the petitioner is
resident in India at the time of presenting the petition, or to grant any relief under this Act,
other than a decree of dissolution of marriage or of nullity of marriage, except where the
petitioner resides in India at the time of presenting the petition.
Commencement Clause – indicates the date on which the Act comes into force
• E.g.
• The Arbitration And Conciliation Act, 1996 - “It shall come into force on such date as the
Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint.”
• Enacted on 16th August, 1996 and Notified in the Gazette on 22nd August, 1996
• The Family Courts Act, 1984 – “It shall come into force on such date as the Central Government
may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint, and different dates may be appointed for
different States.”
• The Payment of Wages (Amendment) Act, 2017
• Commencement clause gives retrospective effect
• “It shall be deemed to have come into force on the 28th day of December, 2016”.
(Enacted on 15th February, 2017)
• The Benami Transactions Act, 1988
• Partly prospective, partly retrospective
• “The provisions of sections 3, 5 and 8 shall come into force at once, and the
remaining provisions of this Act shall be deemed to have come into force on the
19th day of May, 1988”
Definitional Clauses

• Expressions used in the Act are defined

• Arranged in alphabetical orders
• Two types of definitions - Inclusive Definition and
Descriptive Definition
• Marginal/Head Notes
• Inserted after the Bill has become law
• Short notations appearing above or beside each section
• Nor considered as part of the Statute, but used as an aid for
interpretation. – conflicting views
• Illustrations
• Found in some Acts –E.g. - Indian Contract Act, IPC
• Provisos
• Explanations
• Schedules
Parts/Chapters – Sections – Subsections- Clauses - Sub-Clauses

• Sections divided as main part, general part and miscellaneous part .

• Both parts and chapters have a title.

• Sections: generally indicated using Arabic numerals – 1, 2…
• Subsections: indicated using and Arabic numerals (1), (2)
• Clauses: indicated using small alphabets - (a), (b)…
• Sub clauses: indicated using small roman numerals in brackets like (i) (ii)
 DELEGATED/SUBORDINATE
LEGISLATION

• E.g. Companies (Specification of definitions details) Rules, 2014.

• In exercise of the powers conferred under sub clause (ix) of clause (76), sub-clause (iii) of clause
(77) of section 2, read with sub-sections (1) and (2) of section 469 of the Companies Act, 2013
(18 of 2013), the Central Government hereby makes the following rules, namely: -
• 1 Short Title and Commencement.-
• (1) These rules may be called the Companies (Specification of definitions details) Rules,
2014.
(2) They shall come into force on the 1st day of April, 2014.
• 2 Definitions
• a) “Act” means the Companies Act, 2013 (18 of 2013)