CLAT 2023 Legal Reasoning Preparation: Important Topics, Preparation Tips, Books, Questions

CLAT 2023 Legal Reasoning Preparation is essential for candidates as the section has a weightage of 20% in CLAT Question Paper. Candidates can expect around 35-39 questions from CLAT 2023 Legal Reasoning Syllabus. The section is designed to test the analytical skills and knowledge of legal studies to deduce an appropriate argument. CLAT 2023 Legal Reasoning Syllabus involves legal knowledge, current affairs, and important legislature and constitutional laws. CLAT 2023 Legal Reasoning has a moderate difficulty level. Download Previous Year’s Question Paper

The passages in this section will be around 450 words each. The passages may be based on facts or current affairs that relate to legal matters, public policy questions, and moral philosophical inquiries. No prior knowledge of the law is expected. However, awareness of contemporary legal issues will help in the application of the principles. Check CLAT 2023 Exam Pattern

CLAT 2023 Legal Reasoning Preparation Tips

Legal Reasoning is an important section when attempting CLAT 2023. In case of tie-breaking situations, marks from the legal reasoning section are used to break the tie. Hence, preparing for this section is of utmost importance.

• Enhancing Skills: Candidates will be required to use comprehension, reasoning, legal knowledge, and reading skills in this section. So using exercises to practice ways to enhance these skills will help the candidates in the long run.
• Read more: Candidates must make sure that they train themselves to read faster and more accurately. This skill is extremely important since the candidates will be using the information they retain when reading to write the answers. Reading more newspapers and magazines will also develop the candidate’s awareness of current affairs and more.
• Practise: Candidates should practice using mock tests and sample papers so that they are familiar with the kind of questions they will be asked. This should help them during the exam.

CLAT Legal Reasoning Preparation Books

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CLAT 2023 Logical Reasoning Syllabus

CLAT 2023 Legal Reasoning section has passage-based objective questions. Candidates will be required to read a few paragraphs of 450 words and answer the questions according to their legal experience.

CLAT 2023 Legal Reasoning Important Topics

Mentioned below are some of the important topics asked in CLAT 2023 Logical Reasoning

CLAT Legal Reasoning Previous Years Paper Analysis

CLAT Legal Reasoning has a difficulty level of moderate to difficult.

• Other than the lesser number of questions, there have not been any major changes to CLAT 2023 Legal Reasoning section.
• Candidates have found the section to be time-consuming.
• Passages the section deals with facts and situations related to the legal or moral repercussions and philosophical enquiries.
• The section had around 8 passages of about 450 words each. Some passages are taken from newspapers or law cases, however, some passages are made just for the purpose of this examination.

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CLAT 2023 Legal Reasoning Exam Pattern

Given below is the exam pattern for CLAT 2023 Logical Reasoning

CLAT 2023 Legal Reasoning Marking Scheme

Given below is the marking scheme for CLAT 2023 Logical Reasoning:

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CLAT Legal Reasoning Sample Questions

Given below is a sample passage that was asked in CLAT 2020. You can use this question as a point of reference. You have to choose the right option based on the information given in the passage. Remember to read the questions before attempting the questions.

Passage 1

India’s Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 (‘Bill’) starts encouragingly, seeking to protect “the privacy of individuals relating to their personal data”. But by the end, it is clear it is not designed to deliver on the promise. For, even as it rightly requires handlers of data to abide by globally-accepted rules — about getting an individual’s consent first — it disappointingly gives wide powers to the Government to dilute any of these provisions for its agencies. Recently, messaging platform WhatsApp said that some Indian journalists and rights activists were among those spied on using technology made by an Israeli company, which by its own admission only works for government agencies across the world. Importantly, one of the first to raise a red flag about the Bill’s problematic clauses was Justice B.N. Srikrishna, whose committee’s report forms the basis of the Bill. He has used words such as “Orwellian” and “Big Brother” in reaction to the removal of safeguards against actions of Government agencies. In its report last July, the committee noted that the dangers to privacy originate from state and non-state actors. It, therefore, called for exemptions to be “watertight”, “narrow”, and available for use in “limited circumstances”. It had also recommended that the Government bring in a law for the oversight of intelligence-gathering activities, the means by which non-consensual processing of data takes place. A related concern about the Bill is regarding the constitution of the Data Protection Authority of India (‘DPA’), which is to monitor and enforce the provisions of the Act. It will be headed by a chairperson and have not more than six whole-time members, all of whom are to be selected by a panel filled with Government nominees. This completely disregards the fact that Government agencies are also regulated under the Bill; they are major collectors and processors of data themselves. The sweeping powers the Bill gives to the Government render meaningless the gains from the landmark K.S. Puttaswamy vs. Union of India case, which culminated in the recognition that privacy is intrinsic to life and liberty, and therefore a basic right. That idea of privacy is certainly not reflected in the Bill in its current form. [Extracted, with edits and revisions, from Unfulfilled Promise: On Personal Data Protection Bill, Editorial by The Hindu, December 16, 2019.]

Questions and Answers for Passage 1

Ques 1: Which of the following views can be correctly attributed to the author of the above Passage?

(a) The idea of privacy is not relevant to the Bill.

(b) The idea of privacy can be overridden by Government agencies since their role is to protect citizens.

(c) The idea of privacy as a basic right is not adequately addressed in the Bill in its current form.

(d) Since the Bill gives sweeping powers to the Government, it is meaningless to reflect the idea of privacy in the Bill.

Ans: The correct answer is (c) – the idea of privacy as a basic right is not adequately addressed in the Bill in its current form. The very essence of the author’s view is that despite the judgment in the landmark K.S. Puttaswamy vs. Union of India case recognising the right to privacy as a basic right, the Bill in its current form does not sufficiently protect the right to privacy of individuals. None of the other options sets out views that are consistent with those of the author in the passage above.

Ques 2: According to the passage, the committee headed by Justice B. N. Srikrishna called for:

(a) Limiting the grounds on which Government agencies may be allowed to act in a manner that endangers the right to privacy of individuals.

(b) The right to privacy to be exempted from the ambit of the Bill.

(c) The right to privacy to be endangered by state and non-state actors.

(d) Watertight protection to Government agencies that process data of individuals.

Ans: The correct answer is (a) - limiting the grounds on which Government agencies may be allowed to act in a manner that endangers the right to privacy of individuals. As is evident from a reading of the passage, the committee anticipated dangers to the right to privacy from government agencies as well and advocated building safeguards to prevent the same. The passage states that the committee recommended that exemptions allowed to Government agencies should be “watertight”, “narrow”, and available for use in “limited circumstances”. (a) is the only option consistent with such a recommendation.

Ques 3: Suppose the Bill provides a test of proportionality in respect of privacy, which is: “the act which infringes privacy must have a legitimate aim and must be the least restrictive way of achieving that aim”. If a journalist is known for her reporting on corruption in Government agencies and the Government chooses to engage a surveillance company to collect messages exchanged by her on WhatsApp, in order to intimidate her, does it meet the test of proportionality?

(a) Yes; without collecting the journalists’ WhatsApp messages, there is no way for the Government to prevent her from reporting against it.

(b) No; the Government should have taken measures such as imprisoning the journalist to ensure that she does not continue reporting.

(c) No; conducting surveillance on a journalist to intimidate her is not a legitimate aim.

(d) Yes; reporting on issues that show the Government in bad light creates disharmony and the Government uses proportionate force to prevent the same.

Ans: The correct answer is (c) - No; conducting surveillance on a journalist to intimidate her is not a legitimate aim. This is because it provides a correct explanation for why the Government’s actions fail the test of proportionality as stated above. The test of proportionality requires that an act that infringes privacy must have a legitimate aim. Conducting surveillance on a journalist in order to intimidate her cannot be a legitimate aim.

Ques 4: The author is concerned about the constitution of the DPA under the Bill because:

(a) The author believes that Government agencies should not be regulated under the Bill.

(b) The author believes that if the members of the DPA are elected by Government nominees, the DPA will be ineffective in regulating Government agencies.

(c) The author believes that the DPA should be constituted of major collectors and processors of data.

(d) The author believes that collectors and processors of data cannot be regulated by persons who have no experience in collecting and processing data.

Ans: The correct answer is (b) – the author believes that if the members of the DPA are elected by Government nominees, the DPA will be ineffective in regulating Government agencies. This is because the author’s concern regarding the constitution of the DPA under the Bill relates to the fact that the members of the DPA are to be elected by a panel comprising mainly Government nominees and the author doubts the ability of a body constituted of Government appointees to, in turn, regulate the actions of the Government agencies.

Ques 5: The bill is amended, and the government’s powers to provide exemptions for its agencies are removed. In such a situation, according to the author:

(a) The Bill would deliver on its promise of seeking to protect the privacy of individuals relating to their personal data.

(b) The Bill would not deliver on its promise of seeking the protect the privacy of individuals relating to their personal data.

(c) The Bill would not deliver on its promise, since it is necessary for the government to have such exemptions in order to effectively do its work.

(d) The Bill would be a failure since the government would not be able to implement it.

Ans: The correct answer is (a) – the Bill would deliver on its promise of seeking to protect the privacy of individuals relating to their personal data. This is clear from the first paragraph of the passage, where the author suggests that the wide powers given to the Government are the reason why the Bill does not live up to its promise. Option (b) is directly contradictory to this, and so cannot be the right option. There is nothing in the passage to support either (c) or (d) as the correct option.