Law Commission of India 

 The Law Commission of India was started in 1955 by an executive order. In order to confront new situations and problems which arise from time to time and to amend law which calls for amendment, a body like the Law Commission is absolutely essential. This is because it is a body which is not committed to any political party and which consists of judges and lawyers, who are expert in the field and who would bring to bear upon the problems purely judicial and impartial minds. As the parliament is very busy in day-to-day debates and discussions, its members do not have the necessary time to consider legal changes required to meet the new situations and problems in a constructive manner. For that the Law Commission may be able to serve its purpose effectively. 

The function of the law commission is to study the existing laws, suggest amendments to the same if necessary, and to make recommendations for enacting new laws. The recommendations for amendment of the existing laws are made by the commission either suo motu or on the request of the government. 

Presently, the eighteenth Law Commission is in existence. The Law Commission in India has brought out 207 scholarly reports to date on various legal aspects. The full text for each report is available on the commission’s website.

Manifestations of Legal Literature 

Legal fraternity may need different types of information, such as case laws, statutory provisions, rules framed under any act, object and reasons of any act, amendment of any act, notifications issued under any particular statute, debates in parliament at the time of enactment of any particular act, or academic articles on a given topic in different situations. 

 Legal literature manifests itself in many forms such as: 

(i) Bare Acts 

(ii) Commentaries on specific laws 

(iii) Manuals/local acts 

(iv) Reports 

  a) Law Commission Reports 

  b) Committee/Commission Reports 

  c) Annual Reports 

  d) Parliamentary Committee Reports 

• Joint Committee 
• Select Committee
• Standing Committee 

(v) Gazettes 

  a) Central Government 

  b) State Government 

(vi) Parliamentary Debates 

• Constituent Assembly Debates 
  • Lok Sabha Debates 
  • Rajya Sabha Debates 

(vii) Parliamentary Bills 

• Lok Sabha Bills 
  • Rajya Sabha Bills 
  • State Legislature Bills 

(viii) Law Journals 

• Academic Journals (containing articles only) 
• Law Reports (containing only the full text of case laws) 
• Hybrid, i.e. a combination of both articles and case laws. Some of the journals also publish statutory materials such as acts, amendments, rules, etc. 
• Only legislative materials such as acts, rules, notifications, etc. 

(ix) Digests 

(x) Legal Dictionaries/Law Lexicons 

(xi) Legal encyclopedic works: such as American jurisprudence, corpus juris secundum, Halsbury law of England and Halsbury laws of India.

Law Reporting in India 

The theory of binding force of precedent is firmly established in England. A judge is bound to follow the decision of any court recognized as competent to bind him, and it becomes his duty to administer the law as declared by such a court. The system of precedent has been a powerful factor in the development of the common law in England. 

Because of common law heritage, the binding force of precedents has also been firmly established in India, meaning thereby that the judgments delivered by the superior courts are as much the law of the country as legislative enactments. 

The theory of precedent brings in its wake the system of law reporting as its necessary concomitant. Publication of decisions is a condition necessary for the theory of precedent to operate; there must be reliable reports of cases. If the cases are to be binding, then there must be precise records of what they lay down, and it is only then that the doctrine of stare decisis can function meaningfully. 

 The Indian Law Reports Act of 1875 authorizes the publication of the reports of the cases decided by the high court’s in the official report and provides that, “No Court shall be bound to hear cited, or shall receive or treat as an authority binding on it the report of any case decided by any of the said High Courts on or after the said day other than a report published under the authority of the Governor-General-in-Council.” 

Though the Law Reports Act gave authenticity to the official reports, it did not take away the authority of unpublished precedents or give a published decision a higher authority than that possessed by it as a precedent. A Supreme Court or high court decision is authoritative by itself, not because it is reported. 

 The practice of citing unreported decisions thus led to the publication of a large number of private reports. The unusual delay in publication of official reports and incompleteness of the official reports made the private reports thrive, resulting in a number of law reports in India being published by non-official agencies on a commercial basis. 

In India, there are more than 300 law reports published in the country. They cover a very wide range and are published from various points of view. A “union catalogue” compiled by the Supreme Court Judges’ Library of the current law journals subscribed by the libraries of various high court and Supreme Court judges (appended at the end of this paper) gives details of various law reports published from India. It also gives details of various foreign law reports submitted by law libraries in India, which gives an idea of the “foreign journals” being used by the legal 

fraternity in the country. 

Legal Research Methodology 

Legal fraternity may require different types of information for different purposes. One’s search strategy for retrieving the desired information has to be formulated on the basis of the “information requirement” at hand. The most common types of information sought by the  legal fraternity are: 

• Any particular case law 
• Case laws on a specific topic 
• Legislative intent of any act 
• Material for speeches to be delivered 
• Legislative history of any particular enactment 
• Corresponding foreign law to any statutory provision in India 
• Meaning of any particular “word” or “phrase” 

1. Finding Case Laws 

The most common methods for finding the case laws on a subject are “digests” and “commentaries” on particular subjects. Subject indexes given at the end of the commentaries are a very useful aid to find out the desired case law on specific aspect. If there is  no commentary on any particular enactment, “AIR Manual” published by M/s All India Reporters, Nagpur can be treated as a very useful source for finding out the case law on any Central Statute. 

In the electronic era, legal databases both online and on CD-ROM, are also very useful for finding any particular case law or case laws on specific topics. 

• Legislative Intent 

In case of any ambiguity while interpreting the provision of any statute, judges have to examine the “legislative intent” of the legislature for enacting a particular legislation. The legislative intent of any provision can be ascertained with the help of the following tools: 

• Objects and Reasons of the Act (published in the bill) 
  • Parliamentary debates 
  • Law Commission Reports (if the bill has been introduced on the recommendation of the Law Commission) 
  • Standing Committee/ Joint/Select Committee Reports 
  • Reports of the Committee appointed by the ministries for enacting/reviewing any existing enactments. 

“Objects and reasons” are published in the bill introduced in the Parliament for ascertaining the legislative intent of any particular provision; they are considered very important and, for that reason, the corresponding bill of any particular act has to be examined. 

  Law Commission Reports, while proposing any new enactment or proposing any amendment in the existing statute, review the legal position on that particular aspect in India as well as in other countries. Hence Law Commission reports are treated as useful tools for ascertaining the legislative intent.

When a bill is introduced in the Upper House or Lower House, sometimes it is referred to a Parliamentary Committee which examines the bill and submits a report to the Parliament. Hence, these reports also contain the background material of any act and can be treated as a useful source for determining legislative intent. 

 “Parliamentary debates” on any bill are always helpful in assessing the legislative intent of the enactment of any particular statute because they contain the speech given by the law minister at the time of introducing the bill and the specific discussions in the House thereafter. 

• Legislative Intent of Tax Statutes/Excise and Customs, Tariff, Excise Tariff and Service Tax etc. 

 Tax Statutes are amended on a year-to-year basis by the “Finance Act” passed by the Parliament/State Legislatures after the budget session. Whenever the constitutionality of any provision is challenged or there is any dispute in the interpretation of any provision in any taxing statute, courts have to ascertain the legislative intent of that provision. Legislative intent of any taxing statutes may be ascertained with the help of the following documents: 

• “Notes on Clauses” given in the Finance Bill/Finance Act. 
  • “Budget Speech” of the Finance Minister. 
  • “Parliamentary Debates” related to specific clauses. 

In every finance bill there is a note for each clause under the heading “Notes on Clauses,” which gives an indication of the purpose for which the corresponding provision is introduced. Speeches delivered by the Finance Minister of the Union government while presenting the budget in the Parliament or by the State Finance Ministers, while presenting the budget in the state legislatures, are important instruments for ascertaining the purpose of levying a particular tax and serve as an important source of information for the honorable judges for interpreting the provisions of a taxing statute while rendering a decision in any case. 

• Research for the Material for Preparing Speeches

Articles published in the law journals on any specific topic are necessary informational resources for writing speeches and can be searched by browsing through the journals, browsing through the legal databases, and browsing through the indexes of the legal articles. Besides articles, legislative histories of the enactment relating to the topic, objects and reasons, law commission or committee reports, if any, on the topic concerned, and statistics, are important. The internet is a useful tool for retrieving the statistical information on the relevant topic through various governmental websites. 

The legislative history of any particular enactment can be traced with the help of the latest Bare Act. After identifying the amendments in a particular act, original amendments are to be retrieved from the government gazettes or journals containing statutory information. Objects and reasons of the particular amendment also give useful insight for the purpose of amendment in any particular act. The legislation database, developed by the Supreme Court judges’ library, is also a very useful tool for ascertaining the legislative history of any central act in India. This database is going to be made available very soon on the website of the Supreme Court. 

Corresponding foreign law to any statutory provision in India can be traced with the help of any international legal database containing statutory information, such as Westlaw or LexisNexis. Commentaries on the foreign case laws on the subject may also be examined for identifying the corresponding statutory provisions. 

• Law Lexicons/Legal Dictionaries 

 When the meaning of a particular word or phrase used in any statute is to be interpreted, in case of any dispute between the parties on the interpretation of a particular word, law lexicons/ legal dictionaries are to be consulted in order to find out whether that particular word has been interpreted by any court. And if that word has been interpreted in any decision by any court, the court has to give its decision on the basis of the appropriate meaning of that particular word defined in any decision of any court. 

Important Legal Sources in India 

1. Commentaries 

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW

• Seervai H.M. Constitutional Law of India: A Critical Commentary, Edn. 4, Vols. 3, 1996. Bombay: N.M. Tripathi Pvt. Ltd., 1991-1996. 
• Basu D.D. Shorter Constitution of India, Edn. 13. Nagpur: Wadhwa & Co., 2001 
• Jain M.P. Indian Constitutional Law, Edn. 5, Vols. 2. Nagpur: Wadhwa & Co., 2003 
• Datar Arvind P. Commentary on the Constitution of India, Edn. 2, Vols. 3. Nagpur: Wadhwa & Co., 2007

ADMINISTRATIVE LAW

• Jain M.P. Principles of Administrative Law, Edn. 6, Vols. 2. Nagpur: Wadhwa & Co., 2007 
• Wade H.W.R. Administrative Law, Edn. 9. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2005 (Indian Edn. 2004) 

INDIAN PENAL CODE

• Batuk Lal & Nakvi S.K.A. Commentary on the Indian Penal Code, Vols. 2. New Delhi: Orient Pub. Co., 1860 
• Ratan Lal & Dhiraj Lal Law of Crime: A Commentary on Indian Penal Code 1860, Edn. 26, Vols. 2. New Delhi: Bharat Law House, 2007. 
• Gour Hari Singh Commentaries on the Indian Penal Code, Edn. 13 (Abridged) 2006 Allahabad : Law Publishers, 2006 

CODE OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE

• Mitra B.B. Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, Edn. 20, Vols. 2. Calcutta: Kamal Law House, 2003. 
• Ratan Lal & Dhiraj Lal Code of Criminal Procedure, Edn. 18, Vols. 2. Nagpur: Wadhwa & Co., 2006. 
• Sarkar S.C. & Ors. Law of Criminal Procedure, Edn. 9, Vols. 2. Nagpur: Wadhwa & Co., 2007Princep Code of Criminal Procedure, Edn. 19, Vols. 2. Delhi: Delhi Law House, 2008. 

COMPANY LAW

• Ramaiya A. Guide to Companies Act, Edn. 16, Vols. 3 + 3 Appendix Volumes. Nagpur: Wadhwa & Co., 2004. 

INCOME TAX

• Kanga J.B. & Palkhivala N.A. Law and Practice of Income Tax, Edn. 9, Vols. 2. New Delhi: Lexis Nexis, 2004. 

EVIDENCE

• Monir M. Law of Evidence, Edn. 14, Vols. 2. Delhi: Universal Law Pub. Co. 2006. 
• M.C. Sarkar & Ors. Law of Evidence in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma & Ceylon, Edn. 16, Vols. 2. Nagpur; Wadhwa & Co., 2007. 

CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE

• Mulla D.F. Code of Civil Procedure, Edn. 17, Vols. 4. New Delhi: Lexis Nexis, 2007 
• Sarkar P.C. & Sarkar S.C. Law of Civil Procedure, Edn. 11, Vols. 2. Nagpur: Wadhwa & Co., 2006. 
• Thakker C.K. Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, Edn. 5, Vols. 1-3- Lucknow: Eastern Book Co., 2000

CONTRACT LAW

• Pullock F. & Mulla D.F. Indian Contract and Specific Relief Acts, Edn. 13, Vols. 2. New Delhi: Lexis Nexis, 2006. 

ARBITRATION

• Kwatra G.K. Arbitration and Conciliation Law of India, Edn. 7. New Delhi: ICA/Universal Law Pub., 2008 
• Markanda P.C. Law relating to Arbitration & Conciliation, Edn. 6. Nagpur: Wadhwa & Co., 2006. 
• Bachawat R.S. Law of Arbitration & Conciliation, Edn. 4, Vols. 2. Nagpur: Wadhwa & Co., 2005. 
• Malhotra O.P. & Malhotra Indu Law & Practice of Arbitration and Conciliation New Delhi: Lexis Nexis, 2006. 

INTERPRETATION OF STATUTES

• Singh, Guru Prasanna Principles of Statutory Interpretation, Edn. 10. Nagpur: Wadhwa & Co., 2006. 

• Digests 
• Surendra Malik Supreme Court Yearly Digest Lucknow: E.B. Co., 2007. 
• Complete Digest of Supreme Court Cases, Vol. 1-10- (Since 1950- Lucknow: E.B. Co., 2007
• Supreme Court Millennium Digest 1950-2000, Vol. 1-18. Nagpur: AIR Publications. 

• Law Lexicon 
• Aiyar Ramanatha P. Advanced Law Lexicon: Encyclopedia Law Dictionary with Legal Maxims, Latin Terms and Words & Phrases, Edn. 3, (Revised & Enlarged), Vols. 4. Nagpur: Wadhwa & Co., 2005 
• Aiyar K.J. Judicial Dictionary, Edn. 13 New Delhi: Butterworths India 2001 
• Prem, Daulat Ram Judicial Dictionary, Vols. 2 Jaipur: Bharat Law Publications, 1992. 
• Legal Glossary published by Ministry of Law, Justice & Co. Affairs, 2001 

• Encyclopedic Reference Source 
• Halsbury’s Laws of India, Approx 30 Vols. New Delhi: Butterworths 1999

• Manual of Central Acts 
• Manohar & Chitley AIR Manual: Civil and Criminal, Edn. 6, Vol. 1-10, 13-14- Nagpur: AIR Pvt. Ltd., 2004 
• Encyclopedia of Important Central Acts & Rules, Vols. 20, Delhi: Universal Law Publishers, 2004, Reprint 2005

• Statutory Rules 
• Malik & Manchanda Encyclopedia of Statutory Rules Under Central Acts, Edn. 2 Allahabad: Law Publishers (India Pvt.) Ltd., 1989. 

• Important Law Reports in India 

There are approximately 350 law journals, which are being published in India. The most cited law report containing Supreme Court decisions is “Supreme Court Cases (SCC)”followed by “All India Reporter (AIR)” and “Supreme Court Report (SCR)”. Major law journals containing the Supreme Court judgments are as under: 

1. Supreme Court Cases 
2. AIR (SC) 
3. Supreme Court Reports 
4. Judgment Today 
5. SCALE 

An analysis of the citations in the Supreme Court shows that “Supreme Court Cases” is the most used law report cited by about 60% of the advocates in the Supreme Court. 

• Important Academic Law Journals 
• Annual Survey of Indian Law New Delhi: ILI 
• Journal Indian Law Institute 
• Journal of Constitutional & Parliamentary Studies 
• Indian Journal of International Law 
• Indian Bar Review 
• National Law School of Indian Review 
• Journal of Human Rights (NHRC)

Important Legal Websites in India 

The Supreme Court judges’ library has developed some very useful in-house legal databases, namely “SUPLIS” “SUPLIB” and “LEGISLATION”. These databases are going to be released very soon on the website of the Supreme Court of India.

1. SUPLIS (Database of Case Laws) 

SUPLIS is an indexing database of case laws decided by the honorable Supreme Court. This Database consists of more than 42,000 case laws since 1950. This database is very useful in finding out the desired case laws. As soon as a cyclostyled copy of any judgment is received in the library it is immediately entered in this database after assigning subject headings and a famous case name (if any). This database is unique, as it contains some important features that are not available in other legal databases developed by commercial vendors. Besides retrieval of Case laws by subject and case title, it also provides search capability by a “famous case name” (if any) assigned at the time of the entry – for example: “Bhopal Gas Case”, “Rajiv Gandhi Assassination case,” “Mandal Commission Case,” etc. SUPLIS also provides “equivalent citations” of case laws so that, in the event that a particular journal is unavailable, that case law could be made available from another journal with the help of this facility. 

1. SUPLIB (Database of Legal Articles) 

Research articles published in various law reports and academic journals contain valuable information as they are written after comprehensive research on the aspect they deal with. SUPLIB is a database of legal articles published in about 200 foreign and Indian law reports subscribed to by the library. Presently, this database consists of more than 12,000 articles. 

Immediately after receipt of a journal in the library, important articles are identified, indexed, and entered in this database under all possible subject headings. This database is very useful for the library staff for identifying the articles needed by the honorable judges on a particular aspect and is one of the most used databases in the Supreme Court Judges Library. 

1.  Legislations (Database of Acts, Rules & all Statutory Materials) 

Statutory materials such as bills, acts, joint committee reports, select committee reports, law commission reports, parliamentary and assembly debates, rules, by-laws, schemes, etc, are among the most important and sought-after library materials in any law library. The Legislative Database is a database for central government acts including amendments, rules, bills, and all subordinate legislations relating to central as well as state acts. This database is very useful for tracing the complete legislative history of any particular central or state act. All the amendments in acts, rules, schemes and by-laws framed under any particular enactment could be readily identified and retrieved with the help of their citations / source given in this database. If the text of any particular central act is desired, a link for “India Code,” which is a database of the Ministry of Law, is also provided to access the full text of the desired central act. 

1. Supreme Court of India 

 This is the official website of the Supreme Court of India. It contains information about the full text of the Constitution of India, the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, golden jubilee celebration, Rules, former CJI’s, present CJI and judges, calendar of the Supreme Court, registrars, and former judges. This site also has links to “Indian Courts”, “JUDIS”, “Daily Orders”, “Case Status”, “Cause List”, “Courts Websites”, and India Code. 

 The “Equivalent Citation Table” developed by the Supreme Court Judges Library, which gives parallel citations of any case in four major law repots in India, namely “Supreme Court Cases”, “AIR(SC)”, “JT” and “SCALE,” can also be accessed through this website. 

1. Parliament of India 

 This consists of three separate home pages: President of India, Rajyasabha & Lok Sabha. 

• President of India 

This consists of information & photographs of Rastrapati Bhawan a photo gallery of former presidents along with other information, parliamentary addresses, speeches, addresses and parliamentary addresses of the president. 

• Rajya Sabha

This contains information about business, members, questions, debates, legislation, and committees. It is useful for retrieving information from Rajyasabha debates, information about the Rajyasabha bills, and various committees constituted by Rajyasabha. It also provides links to the other country’s parliamentary sites, as well as legislative sites for all the states of other countries. 

• Lok Sabha 

 This is also a very important site which provides information regarding recent and previous members, committees, procedures of the house, debates, etc. It is useful for retrieving the information regarding any bill pending in the house, debate of the house, procedure of the house and about the collection of the parliament library. It also provides a link to various official sites in the country. A link to all of the sites of various ministries is also provided. 

1. TRAI 

 This is the official site of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, which informs about the TRAI Act. The Telecom policy service provides registered agency regulations, which can be retrieved through this site. This site is important for retrieving tariff orders as well as the judgments delivered by the authority. 

1. Central Electricity Regulatory Committee 

 This site is an important site for knowing about the regulations, orders, power data, tariff notifications, and schedules of hearings of the authority. All the orders / decisions of the authority are available on this site in a chronological fashion. 

1. SEBI Securities and Exchange Board of India 

 This site is the official site of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, and provides information on the legal framework of the SEBI, including auto rules. Regulations, orders / rulings of the tribunal as well as of chairman / members, and reports and documents of the boards are also available on this site. 

1. Ministry of Company Affairs 

 This is an important site for knowing any information related to company affairs. Reports of various committees such as company law, notifications and circulars issued by the Ministry of Company Affairs and Information about the vanishing companies, corporate groups and concept paper are available on this site. 

1. Ministry of Law & Justice 

 This is a very important site as it contains a link to “India Code,” which provides online access to the full text of any central act of Parliament. It also provides a link to various important legal websites. 

1. Law Commission of India

This is a very useful site as it contains the full text of many law commission reports and a list of all law commission reports in the countries. It also contains consultation papers of the law commission on various legal aspects. 

1. Indian Code Information System (incodis) 

This website belongs to legislative department of India. This is an important site for retrieving the full text of any of the central acts which are being regularly updated after amendment, if any. The full text of the Constitution of India is also available on this site. It also contains the text of the parliamentary bills / legislative bills, as well as information regarding the bills which are being introduced or passed in the current session of the Parliament. A CD-Rom version of the Constitution of India and the election laws manual could also be ordered with the help of a requisition form available on this site. 

1. India Image 

This is another important site developed by NIC, which is being framed as, “gateway to the government of India information over the web”. This is a very comprehensive site which verbally provides something on everything about the government of India. It contains a Government of India directory, India fact file, and information about any district in India with facts and statistics. Results of various examinations and important documents such as the union budget, economic survey, and India vision 2020 are also available. It also contains government policies, provides links to Indian Railways and Indian Airlines and all other important Indian websites. Other related information could also be retrieved with the help of this site. 

1. Indian Judiciary 

This is the most important website of the Government of India, which provides invaluable information regarding the judiciary, covering all the cases of the Supreme Court and High Courts (reportable / non-reportable), decided or pending. It also provides information about all of the high courts. Its sub-websites are as follows: 

• Judis: Contains information regarding the judgments of the Supreme Court (decided cases) from 1950 to date. It also covers judgments of the high courts. 
  • Daily Orders: It provides the latest daily orders of the Supreme Court and high courts. 
  • Courtnic: The current status of any case, i.e. information of all pending and disposed cases including next date of listing, date of disposal, etc, is easily available on this site. It also provides the text of latest orders. 
  • Causelists: Contains information regarding cause lists, including weekly lists, advance lists, daily lists and supplementary lists of the Supreme Court and high courts. 
  • Court Web Sites: This provides links to the websites of the high court and some district courts. 
  • India Code: Can be accessed from the provided link on this site.

LEGAL RESEARCH 

Meaning of legal research: 

• “Legal research is the field of study concerned with the effective marshaling of authorities that bears in a question of law” 
• “The systematic investigation of problems and matters concerned with such as codes, acts etc. are called legal research.” 
• “Legal research is an investigation directed to discovery of some fact; careful study of a subject.” 

Keeping in view to the said definitions, we can say here that legal research is an act that discovers the legal principles relevant to a particular problem and it is the foundation for good legal advice. 

Primary and Secondary Sources: 

Primary sources contain the actual law. Constitutions, court decisions, cases, statutes, treaties and administrative regulations are all examples of primary sources. 

Secondary sources are materials, which comment, explain and annotate on these primary sources. Usually, they include treaties, legal periodical, articles, legal encyclopedias, annotations ,law dictionaries, commentaries, continuing legal education publications, opinions of the Attorney General, Secretary of the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and other agencies. 

On the other hand, finding tools are reference publications, which are used to find out primary and secondary sources. They include digests, indexes to legal periodicals, and indexes to annotations, law dictionaries and citations. 

1. Primary Sources: The following sources are considered as primary sources in the legal research by the legal professionals. 
   1. Constitutions, 
   1. Statutes, 
   1. Treaties, 
   1. Court decisions, and 
   1. Administrative regulations. 

• Secondary Sources: The following sources are the secondary sources used in the legal research by the legal professionals. 
  • Treaties, 
  • Commentaries, 
  • Law review/Legal periodicals,
  • Articles, 
  • Continuing legal education publications, 
  • Law encyclopedia, 
  • Annotations, and 
  • Opinions of the Secretary of Justice. 

Methods/ Techniques of legal research: 

In pursuing research for disclosing facts or proving a hypothesis true or false, various kinds of methods can be applied for the successful research. The following research methods collectively or individually can be applied for the successful research as the main methods. 

1. Observation: 

 Information can be received by observing, visiting and viewing the place, society, events or the things pertinent to the study or research. Observation can be taken as primary and reliable source of information. If a researcher is careful, he/she can get the points that may play the significant role in his research or study. Observation is a method that is common in the research of legal and social science. Observation should be guided by a specific research purpose, the information receive from the observation should be recorded and subjected to checks on the trail of reliability. 

• Questionnaires: 

 In questionnaire method, a researcher develops a form containing such questions pertinent to his study. Generally, the researcher prepares yes/ No questions or short answer questions. In questionnaire method, researcher distributes such forms to the people to whom he/she deems appropriate. The people, to whom the questionnaires have been distributed, should answer that what they have known by filling out the form and return it to researcher. 

• Sampling: 

When the subject of research is vague, comprehensive and when each indicator cannot be taken by virtue of financial constraint, time and complexity, etc. then the researcher can randomly collect data/sample depending on the reason. This is called as sampling method. For instance, in a demographic research, part of population represent various groups can be taken into consideration. That is why, it is said that sample is a method that saves time and money. 

• Interviews: 

A researcher can receive information sought by him/her asking people concerned through interview. It is a direct method of receiving information. Interview can be generally held asking questions in face-to-face contact to the person or persons and sometimes through telephone conversation. This method is common in the research of legal and social science. In this method, the researcher has to use less skill and knowledge to receive information he/she had sought. 

Interview is known as an art of receiving pertinent information. In the opinion of P.V. Young, interview can be taken as a systematic method by which a person enters more or less imaginatively into the life of a stranger.

• Case Study: 

 Case study is taken as one of the important and reliable methods for legal research. Case study can be defined as a method of research where facts and grounds of each legal issue are dealt with by taking individual case Goode and Hatt state that case study is a way of organizing social data so as to preserve the utility character of the social object being studied. 

Types of legal research

The research can be broadly divided into various types by having a comparative analysis with respect to another kind of research. These are:

· Descriptive and analytical legal research