Attorney General Quiz 2016 Prelims + Answers

Attorney General Quiz 2016

11th September 2016

Balaji Subramanian & Lokesh Kaza

Acknowledgements Vishnu SumanthTPS HarshaAvaneendra KhareQuizzing@NALSAR

Thanks to:

Laws of the Game30 questions, 33 points in allQs 1-27 carry 1 point each, Qs 28-30 carry two points each.Top 8 teams will enter the finals.In case of ties, teams answering a higher number of star marked (*) questions correctly will qualify. Questions 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 are * marked.If the tie still persists, sudden death will apply. Please switch off all mobile phones.Quizmasters’ decision is final.

1.In the late 2000s, the Hyderabad chapter of the US-based Center for Inquiry worked with an NGO named Jana Vignana Vedika to ban what they called a ‘cult of superstition.’ Some of the reasons behind trying to get a ban in place was that no patient records were maintained, and that there were no individual follow-ups. In due course, different laboratories in the country tried to ascertain whether there were steroids or heavy metals being used, as alleged. Subsequently, the High Court dismissed the petition and all pending cases were dismissed. While filing the suit, the NGOs were irked by a particular term which was changed following the dismissal, to avoid further legal complications. What was the Center for Inquiry trying to get banned?

And the answer is…

Fish Medicine

2.Costing $1 and identical to the original in spelling, capitalization and punctuation, it topped US sales chart days briefly and was in the Top 10 bestselling books list on Amazon.com on 30th July 2016.The significant increase in sales was due to something that was said in Philadelphia. It was listed second only to the then-newly released “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”.

What was said in Philadelphia, which may have prompted the wave of collective national guilt that fuelled this surge in demand?

“Have you even read the United States Constitution?”

3.In 2000, Mattel sued MCA Records for copyright and trademark infringement. In addition to the main claims, it also alleged that that the cover packaging of the single sponsored by MCA used a trademarked colour owned by Mattel.In 2002, Judge Alex Kozinski ruled that the song was protected as a parody under the trademark doctrine of nominative use and the First Amendment. Kozinski dismissed the case and concluded his ruling by saying, "The parties are advised to chill." Despite the lawsuit, Mattel released a promotional music video of the song (with modified lyrics) on their web site in 2009, as part of a new marketing strategy brought in to revive sales.Name the song in question.

Barbie Girl

4.This is a clip from the 2015 film Bombay Velvet, directed by Anurag Kashyap. What did Kashyap say the song was inspired by?

K. M. Nanavati v. State of Maharashtra

5*."I was a magistrate in Croydon at the time and I remember watching it on television the night it happened and saying to my wife: I think we’ll be seeing this ________ chap in front of Croydon magistrates. I had no idea it would be me who was to sit in judgement. After we’d heard all the evidence, we retired and we all three of us quickly came to conclusion that the best thing was community service. When we came back into the courtroom there was a very dramatic pause before Mr Justice Davies delivered the sentence. He looked very relieved.I think we got it right. He had no criminal record whatsoever, it was his first offence. And looking at the facts, he was sorely provoked. What was said to him was really quite unpleasant. Of course he shouldn’t have reacted as he did. But I think he was punished appropriately."This is how Justice Edward Handley (retd.) describes his decision in what has been described as "the most famous common assault case in the history of the English legal system".Who was the defendant?

Eric Cantona

6.The Equality (Titles) Bill was an unpassed Bill of the UK Parliament that sought to end a measure of gender discrimination and allow for equal succession of female heirs to hereditary titles and peerages. It was sponsored by Lord Lucas and Dingwal in the House of Lords and Conservative MP Mary Macleod in the House of Commons. The Bill was precipitated by the passage of the 2013 Succession to the Crown Act, which altered the laws of succession to the British throne so that male heirs no longer precede their elder sisters. The legislation was therefore meant to align hereditary titles in accordance with the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act. A number of the bill's supporters had titles that were in danger of dying out, as their only heirs were female. What was the Bill known as colloquially, in reference to the world of pop culture?

Downton Abbey Bill

7.X hailed from a family where his ancestors could be traced back to Hyderabad. His surname was based on the trade carried on by them, who were in the business of making and fixing palanquins. While horse-driven carriages made the palanquins redundant, the surname however stuck.X's father migrated to Bombay and set up a laundry business, where X was born in a modest home in Cumballa Hill.

Who?

Nani Palkhivala

8.In the 2012 Indian Grand Prix, Ferrari introduced an ensign on the top of its chassis. When questioned by the media, Ferrari released a statement noting that it placed the ensign as a tribute to one of its country’s “outstanding institutions”. A spokesperson for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs later noted that the use of "sporting events to promote a cause which is not of a sporting nature and one which is sub judice is not in keeping with the spirit of sport".What was the institution?

(OR) What sub judice cause did the MEA accuse Ferrari of promoting?

Italian Navy/Enrica Lexie Case

9.The Supreme Court of India delivered a ruling on December 30, 1996 regarding industries covered under the TTZ, a 10,400 sq km area. This was in response to a PIL seeking to protect certain monuments from environmental pollution. In the ruling, the Court banned the use of coal/coke in industries located in the TTZ with a mandate for switching over from coal/coke to natural gas, and relocating them outside the TTZ or shutting downThe TTZ comprises over 40 protected monuments including three World Heritage Sites.a) List any two out of the three World Heritage Sites falling under the TTZ.b) Expand TTZ.

Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri, Agra Fort

Taj Trapezium Zone

10*.In 1999, X resolved to file a suit against Prasar Bharati challenging a particular decision that the court had given with respect to something he was famously associated with. He also filed a complaint with the Press Council of India against United News of India (UNI), the news agency that had been breaking news about these particular cases. X accused the agency of not making efforts to corroborate the stories.What strengthened his case was that no correlation could be conclusively drawn between the incidents and what UNI was claiming. For instance, UNI had reported a case from Patne village of Nashik district saying that nine-year-old Dinesh Prabhakar had allegedly set himself ablaze due to this but it turned out that he had burnt himself accidentally while preparing tea. Neither Dinesh nor his parents mentioned anything about what UNI had claimed in their news coverage which strengthened X's case further.Who was X? (or) What was he associated with?

Mukesh Khanna/Shaktimaan

11.In the sensational Chhindwara Court Murder Case, a villager by the name of Todal was found dead on 19th September 1949. The police's theory was that the accused conspired to murder Todal as he was in love with his wife, while the accused pleaded his innocence and claimed that Todal was killed owing to some other reason. The defense subsequently read passages from a non-fiction book that conclusively proved that the injuries inflicted upon Todal were from another source.Which (then) recently released book with a preface by Lord Linlithgow, the Viceroy, was this?

Man-Eaters of Kumaon

12.Administrations around the world have tried to deal with this issue in their own ways. For instance, in Brunete, a town west of Madrid, undercover volunteers identified culprits using a town hall database and sent it to the owners in boxes with a “Lost Property” label. In New Taipei City, Taiwan, officials offered residents a ticket in a lottery for what was handed in. The problem has become quite severe in Paris with the city’s former environment chief even claiming that it lost Paris the 2012 Olympic Games as the Japanese used it as an argument for opposing its candidacy. A piece on statistician Nate Silver’s blog, FiveThirtyEight.com stated that New York was one of the worst affected with close to 96 tonnes per day. This was despite Mayor Ed Koch’s 1978 law, although the issue was much more severe back then. Though the law is difficult to enforce, it is said that certain “social” incentives—the hard glare of a passer-by and the offender’s feelings of guilt—are at least as powerful as financial and legal incentives.What issue is this?

Canine Waste

13.An extract from Upendra Baxi's open letter to Fali Nariman, expressing his displeasure at Nariman's appearance as lead counsel for 'X', in one of the most (in)famous matters in Indian history."All that Mr. Nariman actually says now in recalling the words of Lord Eldon (perhaps because the culture of the Anglophile Bar lacks utterly any serious postcolonial apologetic vocabulary!) that ‘one has lived long enough to find out that one may be very angry and very wrong!’. All that he now says is that he was ‘very wrong’ in opposing before the Supreme Court the direction for interim relief issued by the High Court. He does not say that he was equally very wrong when he contested the High Court’s ruling holding them ('X') liable at law!"Who was Nariman's client?

Dow Chemical/Union Carbide/Warren Anderson

14._____ ______ al-Mansour, was a Libyan lawyer, diplomat, and writer. He served in various international legal postings, including as Libya's Ambassador to the United Nations, Canada, France and China. In 1972 he became Minister for Petroleum and in 1984 served as OPEC's chief. In 1986–1987, he was Libya's Minister for Foreign Affairs and in 1989 returned to private law practice in Tripoli. In the late 1990s he served as Libya's lawyer handling charges associated with the high profile Lockerbie bombing.However, he also happens to share his given name with an Indian legend 'X', one that in some sense resulted in the latter's detention at multiple airports following 9/11. While 'X' was born a Hindu, his work has affirmed his atheistic views. FITB.

Kamal Hassan

15*.This is an excerpt from the Telegraph's review of "Irish Peacock and Scarlet Marquess":"The most sensational trial of the 19th century. Merlin Holland has produced a gripping and fascinating volume that entirely supersedes previous accounts of the Queensberry trial. Along with a number of unfamiliar biographical details and intriguing glimpses into his private life, it gives us, for the first time, a real sense of how X actually spoke in conversation. As a work of dramatic legal literature it ranks with Plato's account of the trial of Socrates. While X failed to make life conform to the laws of his own writing, he did at least succeed in turning one of the most important episodes in his biography into a kind of art."Who is X, who happens to be Holland’s grandfather?

Oscar Wilde

16.In 2014, Saudi Arabia ordered a ban on 50 ‘blasphemous’ and ‘inappropriate’ children’s names as they contradicted the Kingdom’s ‘religious and cultural norms’. Along with western names such as Sandy and Elaine, the ministry forbade the use of names with royal connotations, such as Malika (Queen) and Amir (Prince). Some religious names were also been deemed inappropriate.

16.However, some of the names on the list did not seem to fit any of the three categories, leaving the reason for their banning open to speculation.The list included 'X', a name traditionally not thought to be un-Islamic. 'X' is known to be the son of Prophet Jacob and the brother of Prophet Joseph. However, certain political reasons were attributed to this move by several media outlets, as 'X' is Arabic for 'Y' and there were ongoing tensions between the two countries.What name was banned? (either X or Y)Which individual could have been the reason for this ban?

Binyamin/Benjamin, Netanyahu

17.The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) recently clarified which food business operators would exempted from certain registration regulations. It laid down criteria under which such exemptions would be granted, one of which was registration under the Co-operative Societies Act. FSSAI also granted an exemption to an entity registered under the Bombay Public Trusts Act, Societies Registration Act and the Khadi and Village Industries Commission. As the organization was already registered under so many societies, FSSAI said further registration wasn’t necessary. It also observed on the nature of the entity stating that:1) The socio-economic condition of the individuals was rather low and they were only eking out a living for themselves by doing petty jobs. They were taking responsibility for the quality and safety of what was produced. 2) Organizations running and managing food enterprises on the lines of Khadi and Village Industries must get encouragement. Which entity was this?

Lijjat Papad

18."Driving up I could see the crowd, but living in New Orleans, I actually thought it was Mardi Gras. There was a large crowd of people outside of the school. They were throwing things and shouting, and that sort of goes on in New Orleans at Mardi Gras”, said X many years later.Former United States Deputy Marshal Charles Burks later recalled, "X showed a lot of courage. She never cried. She didn't whimper. She just marched along like a little soldier, and we're all very very proud of her."

Either identify X or put funda.

Ruby BridgesThe first black child to desegregate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana during the New

Orleans school desegregation crisis in 1960.

19.The Film Censorship Board in 'X' decided to modify the ending of 'Y' by adding the caption 'Finally Y surrendered to the police'. The Chairman of the Censor Board, Mr. Abdul Halim said "Normally under our guidelines, there must be some kind of element of retribution in the movie. Especially if the characters shown in the movies are involved in crime, then there must be some kind of comeuppance for that. So, we asked the producer to put in a caption...This was to send a message that the law cannot be taken into your own hands".Give me X and Y.

X- Malaysia, Y- Kabali

20*.An unusual problem was faced by the scorer in a local match that Sussex was playing in December, 1971. X, an overseas player who was playing in that match received news from India that something had happened.An individual at the ground who had heard of the news asked how X’s name should go up on the scoreboard. X replied: "As far as I care, you can call me John Smith."What had happened in India?

Abolition of Privy Pursesand Titles

The Nawab of Pataudi could no longer use his title. His name was changed to Mansur Ali Khan on the scoreboard.

21.Though it seems commonplace today, not every project receives this distinction. Those working on these projects are provided with step-by-step instructions on how to earn the right to add this.The American Humane Association (AHA) had begun their work in this area after an incident that occurred on the set of the film Jesse James in 1940. After years of collaboration which saw specific guidelines being framed and the AHA becoming the only organization with this jurisdiction, it was used for the first time in the 1972 film, “The Doberman Gang.”What is this the origin of?

“No animals were harmed in the making of this film.”

22.The official patent for this was issued on 12th February 1985. Carmela Vitale, to whom it is credited lives in the state of New York. She is not very well known for her invention, despite its worldwide spread – probably because so many different versions copying the idea have appeared since hers was produced.Another inventor Alison Grieve had been searching for Vitale for a while stating that her invention was used possibly billions of times per year. Grieve said, ”It was a small, yet widespread, problem, answered by a simple solution. And yet, despite its ubiquity, its inventor is entirely unknown. Who is Carmela Vitale? Where is she now? Why did she let the patent expire after just a couple of years? I love the mystery and intrigue. And I want her to receive some of the kudos she deserves.” Vitale has since been traced, and comedian John Finnemore even wrote a song for her. What did Carmela Vitale invent?

“Carmela Vitale, you won't have heard her name.Just a woman from New York who never got a lot of fame.But listen as I tell you how with brains and guts and grit,

Carmela changed the world a very tiny little bit.

The boxes then were flimsy and they did that thing they did!And out of her four seasons three were stuck tight to the lid!”

Pizza saver

23.According to data collated by PRS Legislative Research, The Rights of Transgender Persons Bill, 2014, passed by the Rajya Sabha last year was the first one of its kind to get the Upper House’s approval in the past 45 years. It was also seen that in the 13th Lok Sabha session (10 October 1999 – 6 February 2004), 343 such bills were introduced but only 17 were discussed while only 14 of the 328 bills were discussed in the 14th LS.PRS also discovered that only 14 such bills have been passed by both Houses and become law in the history of the Indian Parliament. The last one passed was the Supreme Court (Enlargement of Criminal Appellate Jurisdiction) Bill, 1968, which became an act on August 9, 1970. What is unique about these bills/what are they called?

Private member’s bills

24.As questions swirl around the legality of the demand, The Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, adopted by UNESCO in 1970, may suggest some answers.Article 1 of the Convention deemed cultural heritage to be “property which, on religious or secular grounds, is specifically designated by each State as being of importance for archaeology, prehistory, history, literature, art or science”. In effect, this gave the right of identification to the state of origin of the cultural heritage concerned. However, the object may have come from a state or nation that no longer exists. The length of time a piece of cultural heritage spends ‘abroad’ then becomes important. Another question is about the procedural validity. When the purported agreement was entered into, the individual concerned was a minor and according to both English Law and the Indian Contract Act, which came into force in India a few years later, based on common English law principles, he was not competent to sign a valid contract at that age. What demand is this?

To reclaim the Kohinoor

25*.At the age of 62, her husband asked her to move out of his house with her three sons to a little shanty in a neighbouring house. Reacting with uncharacteristic venom, she challenged him: ‘Vakil saab, if I go to court, you will never be able to wear your black coat again!’After she won, the Bahrain-educated lawyer took it as a personal insult and hung up his black coat for good.

How do we know the wife?

Shah Bano

26.Section 301 of the UK Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988 provides as follows:

In a nutshell, the section specifically extends the copyright protection granted to a particular work infinitely. The author bequeathed the royalties from the work to the Great Ormond Street Hospital, and luckily for them, the PM in 1988, Jim Callaghan, just happened to be married to the chair of their gubernatorial board. He inserted this section into the new copyright law, and cemented the immortality of this work.ID the work, which copyright lawyers now refer to as the copyright that never grew up.

Peter Pan, by Sir JM Barrie

27.Copyright law was the primary tool used by the government to suppress a 1925 work. The author died on 30 April 1945, meaning that the term of the copyright extended for a period of 70 years from then under EU law. After the author’s death, the copyright was seized by his local government, which assiduously prevented the work’s reproduction. On 1 January 2016, when the work finally came out of copyright, the government refused to pass any other law censoring the work, choosing instead to enlist a local institute of contemporary history to release an annotated edition, aimed at showing that the work was “incoherent and badly written” rather than “powerful or seductive”.Which work?

Mein Kampf

Two pointers beginQ 28-30

28. a) In 1997, a California court ordered the defendant to pay Fred Goldman $33.5 million in damages. The defendant's assets were auctioned off to raise about $500,000, which went to the plaintiff. Now bankrupt, the defendant signed a $600,000 book deal with ReganBooks. The book was announced in 2006, but the plaintiff caught wind of the launch and sued to recover the rights to the book as part of the $32.5 million owed to him. In August 2007, a Florida bankruptcy court ordered the auction of the rights, which the plaintiff acquired. Rather than suppressing the book, he changed the cover and inserted some additional material before publishing it himself through Beaufort Books.The older cover design was leaked on the internet, however, and is now freely available. Who is the defendant/author?

OJ Simpson

28. b)While the defendant retained prominent lawyer Johnnie Cochran as his counsel, he also requested the addition of a close friend to the defence team as a volunteer assistant. This assistant did have a law degree, having practiced for about five years around the late 1960s, but had gone into business with no intention of practicing further, letting his attorney’s licence expire. Immediately after the events leading to the case in 31(a), he frantically re-activated his licence. This led the media to speculate on the ulterior motives behind his presence on the defence. Some argued that mere days after the event, he was seen carrying a Louis Vuitton bag out of the defendant’s house, the contents of which were crucial to the prosecution’s case. As a member of the defence, he could no longer be cross-examined by the prosecution. Who was this assistant, whose progeny enjoy near-universal fame today?

Robert Kardashian

29. a)Some jurisdictions have passed laws which serve to reduce or eliminate the penalty for statutory rape in cases where the couple's age difference is minor and the sexual contact would not have been rape if both partners were legally able to give consent. Such laws vary, but can include:• Rephrasing the definition of the offense itself to completely exclude situations

where the difference in age is less than a specific time period.• Providing an affirmative defence to statutory rape based on the small difference

in the participants' ages, or on evidence of a pre-existing sexual relationship between the accused and the perceived victim that did not constitute statutory rape.

• Reducing the severity of the offence from a felony to a misdemeanour, which prevents loss of civil rights and reduces available penalties.

• Reducing the penalty in such cases to a fine, probation or community service.What are these laws called?

Romeo and Juliet laws

29. b)In 1908, two Boston women were determined to sit for the Massachusetts bar examination. A lawyer named Arthur Winfield MacLean agreed to tutor them, and other students followed over the next few years until finally a school was established. Arthur MacLean became the school’s first dean as it became the first institution in the history of law schools devoted exclusively to the education of women. What was the name given to this institution which is now known as the New England School of Law?

Portia School of Law

30*. a)In a recent dispute, Pradeep Panigrahi, the Science and Technology Minister of an Indian state asserted that there was evidence of its availability in his state prior to 1500. The minister's claim was based on a report prepared by an expert Committee headed by Asit Mohanty.The Committee had to be formed owing to a dispute over the origins of something. It went on to present a 27-page research paper and a 100-page document comprising 75 points. According to Mohanty, the report would be beneficial in his state getting a GI tag for it as the other party to this dispute had not applied for the same due to lack of concrete evidence to support their claims.What was the subject of the dispute?Which two states were the main parties to the dispute?

RasgullaBoth Orissa and West Bengal claim that invention of the

sweet should be credited to their state.

30*. b)The nationality of its creator has been a source of argument between the two nations for many years. People from Y have long believed it was created in 1935 by a chef called Bert Sachse, at the Esplanade Hotel, in honour of X who visited the country in 1926 and again in 1929.However, the other country, 1500 km to the east also stakes claim to it. In 2008, Helen Leach published The X Story: A Slice of Z’s Culinary History, in which she argued that the earliest known recipe was published in Z. Subsequently, later research by Andrew Wood and Annabelle Utrecht suggest that it originated in the United States and was based on an earlier German dish.What was the subject of the dispute?

PavlovaBoth Australia and New Zealand claim that invention of the

dessert should be credited to their country.

Finals to follow.

Attorney General Quiz 2016 Prelims + Answers

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