Question:medium

Principle: Use of criminal force intentionally knowing that it would cause or is likely to cause injury or annoyance to the person against whom force is used, is an offence.
Facts: X, a renowned social worker who had launched a movement for liberation of women, pulls up a Muslim women‘s veil in public in good faith without her consent causing annoyance to her.
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 a renowned social worker and he has committed no offence because his motive was good
  • X acted in good faith to liberate her from clutches of tradition and has hence has committed no offence
  • X has done the act in public and not in secrecy therefore had not committed any offence
  • X has committed an offence by use of criminal force
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The Correct Option is D

Approach Solution - 1

Notice what this particular principle does and does not include. It criminalises knowingly using force likely to cause injury or annoyance to a person, and unlike some related rules, it does not build in any exception for good faith or good intentions on the part of the person using the force.

X pulled up the woman's veil without asking her, and doing so in public, to a stranger, without her consent, is plainly likely to cause her annoyance, which X could reasonably be expected to know. That satisfies the knowledge and likely effect elements the principle requires, and nothing in the principle asks whether X had a social cause behind the act or how well regarded X is generally.

Motive, reputation, and openness of the act are all factors that sit outside the definition given, they explain why X did it and how, but they do not erase the fact that force was used on a person in a way likely to cause her annoyance without her consent. That is what the principle punishes.

So the correct answer is X has committed an offence by use of criminal force.

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Approach Solution -2

Asking what the principle would need to say for each option to be correct exposes the gap in three of the four choices.

  1. X is a renowned social worker and he has committed no offence because his motive was good: This would require the principle to include a reputation-based exception, but it contains no such language, it is written purely around knowledge and likely effect.
  2. X acted in good faith to liberate her from clutches of tradition and has hence has committed no offence: This would require a good faith exception written into the rule, but this particular principle, unlike some others in the same set, carries no such carve out.
  3. X has done the act in public and not in secrecy therefore had not committed any offence: This would require the principle to treat openness as a defence, but nothing in its wording ties liability to whether the act was done publicly or secretly.
  4. X has committed an offence by use of criminal force: No additional wording is needed, the principle as written already covers intentional force likely to cause annoyance, and that is exactly what happened when the veil was pulled up without consent.

Since none of the exceptions the other three options rely on actually exist in the principle's wording, the option finding an offence is the one that matches the rule as it stands.

Therefore, the correct answer is X has committed an offence by use of criminal force.

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Top Questions on Law of Torts

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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. 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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