Status Capacity - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition status-capacity

Definition :

Status - capacity, the fundamental difference bet-ween status and capacity is that the former is a legal State of being while the latter is a legal power of doing. Status determines a person's legal condition in community by reference to some legal class or group and cannot normally be voluntarily changed. The imposition of status carries with its attribution of a fixed quota of capacity and incapacities, but it does not directly compel the holder to do or refrain from doing any particular act. Capacity, on the other hand, is a legally conferred power to affect the rights of oneself and other persons to whom the exercise of the capacity is directed, subject to certain generally and legally defined limits - limits which vary in relation to each particular form of capacity. Capacity in this form is an incident of status, Mahalinga Thambiran Swamigal v. AIR 1974 SC 199 (206): (1974) 2 SCR 74.