CHAPTER.

LAW LIBRARY
,~rAODUCTION

V"
of
t11hOSe you Who int
end to b
..he 1aw exams, neect t ecorne lawu
lP o acqUir .. ,ers, and not just
you must not rest content b e the habit of USin to pass
·t were, through the te Ygetting to know th g legal Inaterials.
aS 1 xt books e law second-hand
l . to the very ~ource of law
s :w
and lecture notes b
]ibrary is the place You-:U~ts~tutes and th~
student a~d later as ~-lawyer.
c=:.~::
earn to haunt, both as a law
,

,f fllB following is a list bf books anct . .

yoUin your quest to learn the law. Journals Which Will be of use to
Y NA Manual

fhe AIR Manual ~ a ready refer~nce for all the Acts

:, uament and which runs into many vol . Passed by
, ~ arrap.ged in alphabetical order. Thes::s. Tuel d1ffere~t Acts
ar . . al A ts Th anua s contain civil
as well a~ ~nmmth . c . . er: are footnotes at the end of each
) section, givmg . e c1tat1ons of important and relev~t case laws
A}so, reference IS made to a~y amendments made in the Section:
!tis published by the All India Reporter Pvt. Ltd.
law Reports

Law Reports are reports of the more important cases decided by

the superior courts, i.e. the Supreme Court and the various High
Courts. Not all cases are reported: only those of legal interest are
reported. These reports have an index, arranged statute wise and
subject wise·which usually appears in the opening pages of the
report.

Legal Language and Legal Writing 91

 Right on top of the full text of each reponect ju
'tatl·on Just below that app ears the names Oft\.dgellle
h th . llt
Cl .
constituted the benc at dec ided th "'"e Juq al)Pe
wh
o
Below that comes ·a1e t : ~-
th umb d
type of the
atp Oe '
casilttictii;·
or Appeal or SpeCI eafvthe etit1~n, as th~ caae e (wlit ~¾
that comes the names o e parties to the case ?Jlal' ha;~· :~
come the Headnotes. The se are not Part of the 1.ud'ge111
fln~ aft.~
~'-er u
v·
~
· f th ·
tersely worded summanesAfto the mha1n Points of the ~llt hllt ~ 1

written out by the reporter er e eadnotes, an the .llldgelll

referred to, overruled or dissented from are not llldgelll ~ ~ r
respectiv~ citations.After that are listed the names ofethdead With ~~ .
. . th 11 8it ·l
who appeared ~~r th~ parties m e matter ~all:v, the tuu 0ca~ t
the judgement 1s given. . The nam e of the Judge Who actu te)Ct Of 1
iv
. .
delivered the judgement m question 1s noted just befo r all)
begins. In cases where more than o~e judge constituting ;~e ~ iiO
n~ •
delivers separate judgements.then msuch cases there is aIlla']Oiih•
. . d t b ,.J~U
judgement and a dISsenting JU gemen Y wuerent judges of~ v
same bench. · ·

Law reports are either official ones published by th~ higher co~ ·t
themselves or those published by private publishers.
Official Reports
Supreme Court Reports (SCA):- This report is published on a
'l
i)
monthly basis and contains cases decided by the Supreme
Court, as indicated by the name of the Report.
ii) Indian law reports (ILA): These are the:·official publication
containing judgements of the various High courts published
on a monthly basis.
Private Reports

The ~o~t popular ~f the law reports published by privately owned

?ubhshmg houses is the All India Reporter which is best -know by
its acronym-AIR. It is published m
Supreme Courts and the Hi h C on~ y and reports cases of the
published reports are thegsu ourts. Some of the other prtvatelY
Maharashtra Law Journal (MLJ)rem e Court Journal (SCJ), the
, etc.
9
92
 court cases (SCC)
I rerflB fo rtnight! .
a
iP . 8 Jaw re po rt p
·siS Je and non-repo
ubli
rt
sh
ed
ed
jud
on
g em en ts of th!;a sis and carries
reme Court of
es u~
~~aiso has a Journal S ec tion w hich C arri
in g ad vo ca te s an d . ~ c le s of current
~interest written by lead d P.L. M ~ • '!heEditors
M alik an
tbiS report are Surendra pa ny f · This report is
B oo k C om
f li~hed by the Eastern O1Ucknow. .
ui,w
l reme court Journal (SCJ)
UP
me Court . d
I

m onthly report er of Sup re

•s iS a It is Pub~/em ents. A~art
l se lection to o.
o!!l this, it has a Journa ed by the Onent
aw House, Allahaba d.

udgements Today
carriesJ·ud .
rt which delivered
· · is asfortnightly law
repo · · gemen~

y ~eh
~ lis e y
~~e;e~ ti
C~urt of India on all issu
o n ~ u b ~ h er s Pv
the sun. It is
es under
ew Delhi and is
t. Ltd. from N
nd it. T he m em be rs of i~ Editorial Advisory
ted by Ms. Man1ula Pa of th e Su preme Court and
tired ju dg es
~ard are drawn ~om re or A dv ocat es. Judgements
ell as a se ni
1gh ~oura o f India es w d a su bj ect index. It.s mode of
inal In de x an
day mclu4es a Nom
itation is JT 2001 (5) SC
.
0
e Mahar. as htra Law Journal
. . -- -
-

is he d on a m on th ly ba sis and which carries

· is a law report publ d by the High Court of
en ts de li ve re
11 the m aj o r ju d g em ed by le ad in g advocates J.
It is ed it
ah ar as h tr a an d Goa. ka r Th e Jour nal also carries
ay C ha nd ur
N. Chandurkar and Abh th e M ah ar as htra Legislature as
ed by
{he text o f new Acts pas,ssetc. made in existing Act.s. The Journal
also amendments, rule a N om in al In dex and a Subject
-a n index of A ct.s,
~ has three indic~s-
1J llndex.

nal
18
The Madras Law Jour
1 ivately pu blishe d law reporter in India, having
; This is the oldest pr blishe d fro m Che nn ai and carries
. It is pu
started publication in 1891
1

Q~
 +-= 1 -=---

[ men ts of the Mad

. ras High C0
· a leadinUrt· It ln,,
\ ~
v
· g1udgeear. Its chi ef ed'Itor IS ,1
e1eaditl ;__ g la~: ~t
all tb JtJJilesSpe rY This Journal cont~ IIU.U.18 a~ ··18
1

ee vo
~ tb _.rJt.R - .n
•nivasan.
Its roode of citation is (2 00 l) 2 °~Of IL
¾J !ti,.,
•i

sou
ndaS wJJ
.. i,·ect i11deX. . ~- '°' /
a . d LaW Reports
All Engfan ~
Th
8 carries judgements of the su~~ri,or 4

eporter
from London by _the PUblishinco~ ~
r,e{l ~~~,i
nus tarnous:r ublished
Britain and_is ;rtbS.
It is edited by Carolme Vandrid
of leading bar. "'ho- "
Ed 'toria l Board com posed
called ButterW 1
eg. (1978) 2A U ~ q 0
assisted by an · f 'tation is as follows:
England . I~ roode o Cl
. n~ i
. . l
Specialised Law Reports n ~
ecialize in cases related to Partieular bra
T he se :
oflaw. . ya.I 5 Th
r::
.
!s
ey
es
are
de
M
cid
atr
ed
im
by
on
the
ial
Su
and
pr~m
Divo
e Court, High
rce ·Cases deal;"_ eO
c::
\ill

rn~ , ~
nd 1:ili~ ··a1 d'spu tes cr im inal La w Journal cove. ring cri~
a .
with matnmoru 1 eports' dealing wi.th matters relating to Incon,~. •11
cases, Income Tax R
Tax.
~
Income Tax Reports
aling wi th inc om e tax , we alt h tax gift ta x and estata ,
This journa l de
d by the Co mp an y La ~ In stitu te of India Pvt. Ltd. c,
duty is publi she
editors are T.A . Ra ma kri sh na n and V. Ramachandran, both ·
Th e
vo cates in the field. Th is Jo urna l co ntain s statutes, rulesI
leading ad .

.circulars and notifications relating to

Income Tax laws and also
on the sam e, decided by the Supreme Court and the r
the ~as es
different High Courts.
Criminal Law Journal ·

The Criminal Law Journal is monthly law report which began

publication in 1904 d .carri a_ .
Sup an es imp tant Ju dgements of.the
~eme Court and High CCurts 1n . or •
Senior Ad Ciiihin -edited by I
Mr .V. R. M an oh ar -and· . . al law . -It is
Ltd. from ;~ at e
lS Published .by AIR pvt.
contains an ingpdur. It.s contents incl ude-a Noznin
exofthe
cases rep ort ed n . .al Ta ble which
94 azne-Wise· ..- ., .
Lega1 Lan . • a'Sllbject mdeX
_~: :::::,- -- -- - ~ ~