CERTIFICATE COURSE ON LIABILITIES

UNDER TORT

ASSIGNMENT

Name : - Shivali Varshney

Email ID :- shivalivarshney257@gmail.com

Contact no. – 9457540500

Liabilities under Torts (ASSIGNMENT)

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ONE WORD/ONE LINER QUESTIONS 2 Marks Each

1. The State was not held liable under vicarious liability while discharging which
functions?

Answer 1 :- Sovereign functions such as maintenance of law and order etc.

2. Who gave the pigeon hole theory?

Answer 2 :- Salmond gave pigeon hole theory.

3. Which Doctrine of Tort law was present in the Bhopal Gas Tragedy case?

Answer 3 :- Absolute Liability

4. Torts has originated from which nation?

Answer 4 :- England

5. Which Liability is absolute in Tort?

Answer 5:- Liability without fault is absolute in torts.

SUBJECTIVE QUESTIONS [Within 100 Words]

5 Marks Each

1. Explain the present day relationship of husband and wife under Vicarious Liability?

Answer 1 :- Vicarious liability was not recognised by the common law as tortuous
relationship. The doctrine of vicarious liability consider the partners as one person(husband
and wife). Thus, if the wife was injured by the husband, due to the action or decisions of the

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husband which was influenced by the employer is considered to be negated under the
Immune law. Thus the employer is never relieved from his legal responsibility.

2. Will cab drivers attract Vicarious Liability?

Answer 2 :- No cab drivers will not attract vicarious liability because the cab driver is an
independent contractor and he will only in liable for his act. Moreover, if the action was
authorised by the master, a wrongful and unauthorised mode of doing an act authorised by the
master or the master has the deepest profits and he is anyways wealthier than his employee,
then also the driver was not liable. As the employer makes a profit from the activity of his
employees, he should also bear any losses that those activities lead to.

3. What is the difference between Strict and Absolute Liability?

Answer 3 :- The main difference between the two is that in strict liability, the nature and
quantum of damages that are payable to the plaintiffs are compensatory in nature i.e. in
accordance to the amount of loss suffered by the plaintiff, damages will be paid equivalent to
the amount lost whereas in absolute liability, the nature and quantum of damages that are
payable to the plaintiffs are exemplary, the compensation provided to each aggrieved party is
much greater in amount that is the damages paid are more as in such cases people lose their
lives and environmental conditions become life threatening.

4. Was Kasturi Lal v. State of U.P. rightly decided?

Answer 4:- The Court in this case observed that it must be borne in mind that when the State
pleads immunity against the claims for damages resulting from injury caused by negligent
acts of its servant, the area of employment referable to sovereign powers must be strictly
determined.

According to me, the case was not rightly decided, the Courts have diluted the distinction
between sovereign and non-sovereign functions and is rather looking into the ideal functions
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a welfare state must perform. The State cannot put before a plea that it was performing a
sovereign functions as that would certainly not suffice and a lot more would be looked into
by the Courts.

ANALYTICAL QUESTIONS [Within 200 Words]

10 Marks Each
1. How to make Liabilities under Tort more stringent in India?

Answer 1 :- One of the main or vital problem of the cases settled till now in tort is that either
it is an out of court settlement or court settle the case with compensations. The amount of
compensation usually a small amount, so the person who is willing to pay the amount will be
wealthy enough to pay the amount and the probability to repeat the torturous activity will be
more One way to eliminate this threat is to make the defendant to pay the compensation and
some punishment should be given to the defendant if the defendant proved to be guilty.
Especially in the cases of negligence because due to negligence huge tragedies are already
witnessed by the country.

2. If you were given power to add an exception to Absolute Liability, what would it be?

Answer 2 :- The phrase and law is basically imposed on any act which is beyond the human
control. But this was out of paper after the introduction of Absolute Liability. If I got any
power to add an exception to absolute liability. I won't need to add any. The one thing which
changes the strict liability to Absolute liability that the defendant can't escape by stating the
defence like act of God. The liability was made so that noone can escape from ones
negligence by stating petty defences. So any change in the law will bring a key hole to the
defendant to escape. Due to these factors even though if I had a chance to change or add an
exception to absolute liability I won't make a change until and unless a new situation arises to
do so.

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