Question:medium

Principle: A spouse is not permitted to put in evidence in any court, any communication during marriage between the spouses without the consent of the person who made the communication.
Facts: X who is the wife of Y saw her husband (Y) coming out of the neighbour‘s house at 6.00 am in the morning. Y told his wife X that he has murdered the neighbour and handed over the jewellery of that neighbour to his wife.
This question consists of legal principle(s) (hereinafter referred to as ‘principle‘) and facts. Such proposition may or may not be true in the real and legal sense, yet you have to conclusively assume them to be true for the purposes of this section. Principles have to be applied to the given facts to arrive at the most reasonable conclusion. Only one of the alternatives, i.e., (A), (B), (C), or (D) is the most reasonable conclusion. In other words, in answering the following questions, you must not rely on any principle except the principles that are given herein below for every question. Further you must not assume any facts other than those stated in the question. The objective of this section is to test your ability in legal aptitude, study of law, research aptitude and problem solving ability even if the ’most reasonable conclusion‘ arrived at may be absurd or unacceptable for any other reason.

Updated On: Jul 15, 2026
  • X is allowed to appear as a witness in court to depose that her husband has told her that he committed a murder
  • X is not allowed to appear as a witness at all in any court
  • X is not allowed to appear as a witness to depose what was told by the husband to her, however, she can depose what she saw
  • X is an independent woman and she can do whatever she wants
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The Correct Option is C

Approach Solution - 1

The principle protects one narrow category of information, a communication passed between spouses during the marriage, and it lets the spouse who made that communication decide whether it can be disclosed. It says nothing about a spouse's ability to testify about facts she observed independently, outside of any such communication.

Here, two different pieces of information exist. First, X's own observation, seeing Y leave the neighbour's house at 6 am, which she witnessed with her own eyes and did not learn from any communication by Y. Second, what Y actually told her afterward, that he had committed the murder, which is a communication made between the spouses during the marriage and which Y has not consented to being revealed.

Applying the principle to each piece separately, the observation is unprotected and X can testify to it, while the confession is protected and X cannot testify to it without Y's consent. A rule that bars her from testifying entirely, or that lets her disclose everything including the confession, both fail to track this distinction the principle draws.

So the correct answer is X is not allowed to appear as a witness to depose what was told by the husband to her, however, she can depose what she saw.

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Approach Solution -2

Testing what the principle would need to say for each option to hold shows where three of the four choices go wrong.

  1. X is allowed to appear as a witness in court to depose that her husband has told her that he committed a murder: This would require Y's consent to disclosure, or no protection for marital communications at all, but neither is true, Y has not consented and the principle protects exactly this kind of statement.
  2. X is not allowed to appear as a witness at all in any court: This would require the principle to bar all testimony from a spouse, but it only bars disclosure of communications between the spouses, leaving her own independent observations untouched.
  3. X is not allowed to appear as a witness to depose what was told by the husband to her, however, she can depose what she saw: No change is needed, this already separates the confession, a protected communication, from the observation, which is not a communication at all, exactly as the principle requires.
  4. X is an independent woman and she can do whatever she wants: This would require there to be no evidentiary rule governing the situation, but the principle specifically addresses marital communications, so this option simply does not engage with the rule.

Since the principle draws a line between communications and observations, and only one option reflects that exact line, that option is the one that fits without needing any change to the facts.

Therefore, the correct answer is X is not allowed to appear as a witness to depose what was told by the husband to her, however, she can depose what she saw.

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Top Questions on Family Laws

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Passage (extract): The work which Gandhiji had taken up was not only regarding the achievement of political freedom but also the establishment of a new social order based on truth and non-violence, unity and peace, equality and universal brotherhood and maximum freedom for all. A new order cannot be established without radically changing the mind and attitude of men towards property and, at some stage or the other, the 'haves' have to yield place to the 'have-nots'. We have seen, in our time, attempts to achieve a kind of egalitarian society and the picture of it after it was achieved. But this was done, by and large, through the use of physical force. It may even be that, like a gas kept confined within containers under great pressure, or water held back by a big dam, once the barrier breaks, the reaction will one day sweep back with a violence equal in extent and intensity to what was used to establish and maintain the outward egalitarian form. This enforced egalitarianism contains, in its bosom, the seed of its own destruction. If egalitarianism is to endure, it has to be based not on the possession of the maximum material goods by a few or by all but on voluntary, enlightened renunciation of those goods which cannot be shared by others or can be enjoyed only at the expense of others.

According to the passage, egalitarianism will not survive if
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Read the passage and answer the question.

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According to the passage, which was the unfinished part of Gandhi's experiment?
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Read the passage and answer the question.

Passage (extract): In the political struggle, the fight was against a foreign power and all one could do was either join it or wish it success and give it his/her moral support. Experience shows that man values his possessions even more than his life because in the former he sees the means for perpetuation and survival of his descendants even after his body is reduced to ashes. We have seen, in our time, attempts to achieve a kind of egalitarian society and the picture of it after it was achieved. But this was done, by and large, through the use of physical force. This enforced egalitarianism contains, in its bosom, the seed of its own destruction. The root cause of class conflict is possessiveness or the acquisitive instinct.

Which of the following statements is 'not true' in the context of the passage?
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