Question:medium

Principle : One who asserts must prove.
Facts : A desires a Court to give judgment that B, C and D shall be punished for a crime which A says B, C and D have committed.
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
  • A must prove that B, C and D were present at the place of crime
  • A must prove that B, C and D have committed the crime
  • B, C and D must prove that they have not committed the crime
  • Police must prove that B, C and D have committed the crime
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The Correct Option is B

Approach Solution - 1

Start with the rule itself: a person who makes a claim before a court carries the burden of proving that claim, the other side does not have to disprove it first. The next step is to identify exactly who is asserting what in these facts.

A is the one approaching the court, and A's claim is specific: that B, C and D committed a particular crime. Since A is the asserting party, the burden the principle creates lands on A, and it lands on the full content of what A said, not some smaller piece of it such as mere presence at the scene.

Checking this against the four options confirms it. Requiring proof of presence only understates A's actual claim, shifting the burden onto B, C and D reverses the direction the principle points, and putting the burden on the police ignores that the police are not the party who came forward with the accusation. Only the option that has A proving the commission of the crime itself matches what the principle demands.

So the correct answer is A must prove that B, C and D have committed the crime.

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Approach Solution -2

A quick way to stress test an answer under this kind of principle is to ask, for each option, what extra fact would have to be true for that option to be the right outcome, and then check whether the given facts actually supply that extra fact.

  1. A must prove that B, C and D were present at the place of crime: For this to be the answer, A's claim before the court would have had to be limited to presence alone, yet the facts describe A as asking for punishment for committing the crime, a bigger claim than mere presence, so this option needs a fact that simply is not there.
  2. A must prove that B, C and D have committed the crime: Nothing needs to change here, A already is the party who came to court, and A's claim already is that the three committed the crime, so this option is true exactly as the facts stand.
  3. B, C and D must prove that they have not committed the crime: This would only work if B, C and D had themselves approached the court with some assertion of their own, but the facts show them only as the accused, not as parties making any claim, so the missing fact needed to support this option is absent.
  4. Police must prove that B, C and D have committed the crime: This would require the police to be the ones bringing the accusation before the court, but the facts are explicit that it is A who does so, so again the fact this option depends on does not exist in the scenario.

Only one option requires no additional or altered fact to hold true, and that is the one tying the burden directly to A and to the full content of A's own claim.

Therefore, the correct answer is A must prove that B, C and D have committed the crime.

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Top Questions on Law of Torts

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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.

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. This unfinished part of his experiment was perhaps even more difficult to achieve than the achievement of political freedom. 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. In establishing a social order on this pattern, there was a strong possibility of a conflict arising between diverse groups and classes of our own people.

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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