NATIONAL LAW SCHOOL OF INDIA UNIVERSITY

BANGALORE

POST-GRADUATE DIPLOMA ANNUAL EXAMINATION (JUNE) 2019

PAPER I – INTRODUCTION TO LAW & LEGAL SYSTEMS

(PGDHRL, PGDMLE, PGDEL, PGDIPRL, PGDCRL, PGDCLP, PGDCLCF)

Marks: 100
Time: 3 Hours
Instructions

1. No clarifications can be sought on the Question Paper.

2. Electronic gadgets of any kind are not permitted inside the
Examination Hall.
3. Bare Acts, notes, articles, books or any other material are not
permitted inside the Examination Hall.
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Explain ANY FIVE of the following questions (5 x 20 = 100 marks]

1. What is meant by a ‘writ’? Explain the different types of writs and

the purpose for which they can be used.
Ans: Writ is a formal written order issued by a court with jurisdiction.
A writ petition can be filed in the High Court (Article 226) or the
Supreme Court (Article 32) of India when any fundamental rights are
violated. The writ jurisdiction of the High Courts is wider and extends
to enforcement of constitutional rights and/or any other matter,
whereas the Supreme Court’s writ jurisdiction under Article 32 is
limited to enforcement of fundamental rights only. Generally, you can
file a writ petition against state and government agencies. However, a
writ Petition can also be issued against private authorities when they
are discharging public functions. The Supreme Court and High courts
have power to issue writs, independent of each other, in the nature of
habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, certiorari, and quo warranto.
Also See Paper I Reading Material, pp. 65-67

2. Explain the different sources of Law.

Ans: See Reading material pages pages 23 to 32 and refer PPT slides
circulated. Legislation and its examples, Delegated legislation in the
forms of notifications, rules and orders. Ordinances, Customary law
and its eligibility parameters of custom to be recognised as law:
immemorial antiquity, consistency, certainty, uniformity,
reasonableness conformity with statutory law etc., Judicial decisions
and Precedents: stare decisis. Constitution as a source of law,
contract leading to obligations specifically between parties, Equity

3. Explain the different types of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)

methods.

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 Ans: See Reading material pages 92-97 and ppt slides circulated.
Refer to different modes such as Negotiation, Conciliation, Arbitration,
Mediation Lok Adalat and Judicial settlement.
Salem Advocate Bar Association Case; Sec.89 Civil procedure Code;
significance of ADR mechanisms with the differences in each type.

4. What is meant by ‘Fundamental Rights’? Explain the Fundamental

Rights in the Indian Constitution.
Ans: Fundamental Rights are the basic rights of the citizens
guaranteed by the constitution. Fundamental rights are essential
rights which enable the right holder to enjoy his/her life to the fullest
extent possible with utmost dignity while empowering themselves. By
nature, the fundamental rights are non-absolute (subject to
reasonable restrictions & amenable for suspension of their
enforcement during national emergency), inalienable, justiciable, non-
negotiable, and they are rights which cannot be waved. State, its
instrumentalities and agencies have the duty to safeguard
fundamental rights. Some fundamental rights are available to aliens
also, such as rights guaranteed under Arts. 14, 20, 21, 22 & 25.
Fundamental rights cast obligations and limitations on the authority
of the State. Fundamental rights are guaranteed in Part III of the
constitution. Also See Paper I Reading Material, pp. 51-65

5. Explain the essential elements of a valid Contract under the Indian

Contract Act.
Ans: See pages 138-148 and ppt slides circulated. Offer ,acceptance,
lawful consideration, to be in conformity with the legal formalities,
consensus –ad -idem and free consent, lawful object possibility and
certainty of performance, intention to create Legal Relationship,
capacity of parties,

6. Explain how ‘constitution of India’ is the fundamental law and also

describe its salient features.
Ans: Paper I Reading Material, pp. 38-50

7. Explain the meaning and importance of Public Interest Litigation,

supported by case law.
Ans: Paper I Reading Material, pp. 85-92

8. Write short notes on any two of the following

a. Sociological theory of Law by Roscoe Pound- Ans: refer ppt
slides for explanation-preference of public interests over private
interest
b. Absolute Liability- Ans: M.C.Mehta v. Union of India
c. Difference between civil litigation and criminal litigation- See
page 33 and refer for differences in the ppt slides circulated

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d. Difference between Natural Theory of Law and Historical School.
Refer ppt slides for difference-Law as divinely ordained from
God and law as emanating from historical growth and
development of the society through, customs, conventions,
economic needs of the people etc.
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 NATIONAL LAW SCHOOL OF INDIA UNIVERSITY
BANGALORE
POST-GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN CYBER LAWS & CYBER FORENSICS
(PGDCLCF)
ANNUAL EXAMINATION (JUN) 2019
PAPER III – LAWS OF CYBERSPACE [Old Scheme]
Hint Answers
*****
Total Marks: 100
Time: 3 hours
Question No.1 (COMPULSORY) 1 X 20 = 20 Marks
1. ABC Ltd held an e-auction for coal in different lots. XYZ bid was accepted for 4000 metric
tons of coal from Dobari colliery. The acceptance letter was issued on 19 th July 2005 by e-
mail to XYZ’s e-mail address. Acting upon this acceptance, XYZ deposited the full amount
of Rs.81.12 lakh through a cheque in favour of ABC Ltd. This cheque was accepted and
encashed by ABC Ltd. ABC Ltd did not deliver the coal to XYZ. Instead it e-mailed XYZ
saying that the sale as well as the e-auction in favour of XYZ stood cancelled “due to some
technical and unavoidable reasons”. The only reason for this cancellation was that there was
some other person whose bid for the same coal was slightly higher than that of XYZ. Due to
some flaw in the computer or its programme or feeding of data the higher bid had not been
considered earlier. This communication was challenged by XYZ in the High Court.
Questions:

(a) Discuss whether the acceptance was complete by XYZ and if contract concluded between
ABC Ltd and XYZ?
(b) Discuss the above case as per Section 13(3) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Hint Answer:
(a) The contract was complete between the Parties.
(b) As per Section 13(3) “... an electronic record is deemed to be received at the place where
the addressee has his place of business” by covering the difficulty of “no fixed point either of
transmission or of receipt”.

Answer ANY FOUR (4) of the Following Questions: 4 X 20 = 80 Marks

Question No. 2
2(a) What is the legal position relating to the protection of Source Code in India?
Hint Answer:
Source code is protected as literary work under Copyright Act & under IT Act (Amendment 2008)
imposes civil liability & can be held for tortuous liability to pay damages by way of compensation to
the person affected. Criminal liability under Section 65 & 66 of IT Act.

2 (b) Discuss Domain Name System [DNS]

Hint Answer:
DNS is the means by which domain names are located and translated into IP address. Hence domain
name serving as address of a system on the internet leads the user to particular website when the
domain name is typed into the browser.

Question No. 3
3(a) Discuss the Safe Harbours for ISPs or Intermediaries
Hint Answer:
 “safe harbour” is provided under Section 512(a) of US DMCA law aims at protecting
transmission, routing, providing connections for materials through a system, or network
 controlled or operated by or for the service provider, or the intermediate and transient storage
of such material in the course of such transmission, routing, or providing connections. Notice
and take-down system, DMCA ensures where service provider has helped copyright owners
to identify actual infringer, he could avail safe harbour protection for hosting activity.
 “System Caching” is available if intermediate and temporary storage of material on the
system or network controlled or operated by or such service provider.
 “hosting activity/storage facility” is made available to service provider under specific
circumstance and conditions like actual knowledge. [refer Section 79 of Indian Information
Technology Act, 2000 & the Copyright Act, 1957 amendments made in 2012]

3(b) What are the issues relating to patenting software in India?

Hint Answer:
As per Section 3(k) of the Patents Act, 1970 an invention is patentable only if a computer program is
one if its elements and if the invention is completely a computer program being ‘computer per se” it
will not be patented. The major issues are relating to specific training requirement to patent officials
to cultivate broad and positive outlook, avoid delay in processing patent applications. India has to
come up with new legal regime balancing the interests of both creators of software program as well as
the general public at large and also both small sector as well as multinational companies.

Question No. 4
What are the components of E-business?
Hint Answer:
 Domain name
 Web hosting facility
 Software & hardware for product showcasing, maintenance of the e-infrastructure required
for maintenance of the business & suitable networking facility to connect
 Online payment mechanism
 Information Security and Legal Compliance support
 Advertising, Promotion, Funding, Administrative support

Question No. 5
What are the major issues related to E-Consumer protection
Hint Answer:
E-commerce contains many services some of which are paid in cash and some in kind and some in
virtual currency. Services themselves are many kinds, some related to delivery of services in physical
space and some of them relate to delivery of services in cyber space. There are several issues related
to the protection of e-consumer some of them are as follows:
 That there is internet/bandwidth availability
 That the is no deficient of services like no delay in delivery, genuine and quality of the
supply, etc.,
 To maintain e-evidence of the transactions conducted online/website/internet
 E-business portals/platforms/sites to have appropriate disclosures, fair terms and conditions,
documents and appropriate grievance handling mechanisms at merchant level to meet the
obligations under the Consumer Protection Act, 1996 besides compliance with Information
Technology law.

Question No. 6 (Answer ANY FOUR (4) of the following Short Notes)
6(a) Caching
Hint Answer:
Caching means storing of material from an original source site for later use. This is stored at a site that
is geographically closer to the user. It is also called as “mirroring” [when storage of entire site/other
complete set of material happen]. There are both Local Caching & Proxy Caching. Caching may give
rise to copyright issues.
6(b) Cookies
Hint Answer:
It is a popular means by which website owner gathers information about Netizens. Cookie is “tag”
which identifies the computer from which a site is accessed. It doesn’t alter any other functioning of
the computer and is passive “Identifier Tag”. Cookies are on user’s computer mostly with user
consent & major browsers provide automatic facility to block cookies if required.

6(c) E-Payments
Hint Answer:
It is integral part of commerce and this mechanism is critical aspect of E-business. Buyer may also
have “E-wallet” or “Digital cash” or an “instrument representing the digital cash”. The e-commerce
website needs to facilitate the prospective buyer to authorise the transfer of money from his credit
/debit card or e-wallet to the acquiring bank. Nowadays there are lot of applications that facilitate e-
payments like BHIM application rolled out by Government.

6(d) Framing
Hint Answer:
The web page is divided into multiple sections that uses HTML-code to pull content from different
sources, right of public display or right of public performance are likely to be violated. Similarly, it
may indicate the sponsorship and lead to confusion, mistake or deception or even dilute the mark.

6(e) Top Level Domains [TLDs]

Hint Answer:
TLDs connected to the “Root” are as follows
 Generic TLDs like .com
 Sponsored TLDs like e.gov
 Country TLDs like .in
 IANA has “Reversed TLDs” like .int

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