Liability of the State and Sovereign Immunity — MCQs

All questions with answers and explanations

Read the full set here, or use the practice card above to test yourself one question at a time.

1. Article 300 of the Constitution of India:

   • Creates a wholly new scheme of State tort liability
   • Continues the pre-constitutional position on suits by/against government (correct answer)
   • Abolishes all government liability in tort
   • Applies only to the Union, not the States

   Explanation. Article 300 continues the pre-constitutional position inherited from the Dominion of India, pending comprehensive legislation that has never been enacted.

2. P. and O. Steam Navigation Co. v. Secretary of State for India (1861) is significant because it:

   • Abolished sovereign immunity entirely
   • First articulated the sovereign/non-sovereign functions distinction in India (correct answer)
   • Was decided after Independence
   • Concerned a purely private contractual dispute

   Explanation. This 1861 Calcutta Supreme Court decision is the earliest Indian articulation of the sovereign/non-sovereign functions test.

3. Sovereign functions are activities that:

   • Any private person could equally perform
   • Only the State, in its sovereign capacity, can perform (correct answer)
   • Are always commercial in nature
   • Require no statutory authority at all

   Explanation. Sovereign functions can be performed only by the State as a sovereign authority, such as making war, keeping armed forces, administering justice and exercising coercive statutory powers.

4. In State of Rajasthan v. Vidyawati (1962), the State was held liable because:

   • Maintaining/driving a government vehicle is a sovereign function
   • Maintaining/driving a government vehicle is a non-sovereign function (correct answer)
   • The driver was an independent contractor
   • The pedestrian consented to the risk

   Explanation. Maintaining a vehicle for official use, and driving it, was held to be a non-sovereign function, like any private employer's activity.

5. In Kasturi Lal Ralia Ram Jain v. State of Uttar Pradesh (1965), the State was held NOT liable because:

   • No gold was actually seized
   • Search and seizure under statutory police power was held a sovereign function (correct answer)
   • The plaintiff had consented to the seizure
   • The head constable was acquitted of theft

   Explanation. The power of search, seizure, and custody of property under statutory police power was treated as an exercise of sovereign power.

6. N. Nagendra Rao and Co. v. State of Andhra Pradesh (1994):

   • Overruled Vidyawati
   • Confined Kasturi Lal to its own facts and expanded State liability (correct answer)
   • Restored the doctrine of common employment
   • Held that sovereign immunity is absolute

   Explanation. This case confined Kasturi Lal to its own facts, moving the law toward holding the State liable for ordinary negligence.

7. Constitutional compensation under Articles 32/226 for violation of Article 21:

   • Is identical to an ordinary tort suit
   • Is a public-law remedy independent of the sovereign/non-sovereign functions test (correct answer)
   • Cannot be granted for illegal detention
   • Was abolished by Kasturi Lal

   Explanation. This constitutional remedy is a separate public-law route to compensation, independent of the private-law sovereign/non-sovereign test.

8. Foreign sovereign immunity is best described as:

   • The same doctrine as a citizen's tort claim against their own government
   • A rule concerned with domestic courts' jurisdiction over another sovereign nation (correct answer)
   • A rule that applies only to Indian citizens abroad
   • Identical to the sovereign/non-sovereign functions test

   Explanation. Foreign sovereign immunity concerns jurisdiction over another sovereign state, distinct from a citizen's own tort claim against their government.

9. An 'act of state', in the technical tort law sense, refers to:

   • Any act done by a state government official
   • A government's dealings with another state or the subjects of another state (correct answer)
   • An act done only by state (not central) governments
   • Any sovereign function performed for citizens

   Explanation. An act of state concerns a government's dealings with another state or its subjects, treated as wholly non-justiciable.

10. Which of the following is a non-sovereign function of the State?

    • Administration of criminal justice
    • Running a public transport corporation bus service (correct answer)
    • Maintenance of the armed forces
    • Legislation

    Explanation. Running a transport service is an activity any private company could equally undertake, hence non-sovereign.