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11. With the development of law, the doctrine of precedents has become an integral part of judicial discipline. The doctrine of precedent is a habit of following previous decisions within more or less well-defined limits. What the doctrine of precedent declares is that cases must be decided the same way when their material facts are the same. The part of a case that is said to possess authority is the "ratio decidendi". Finding "ratio decidendi" is not a mechanical process but is an art that one gradually acquires through practice and study. What is really involved in finding the "ratio decidendi" of a case is a process of abstraction. The ascertainment of the "ratio decidendi" of a case depends upon a process of abstraction from the totality of facts that occured in it. The higher the abstraction, the wider the "ratio decidendi". In contrast with the "ratio decidendi" is the "obiter dictum". "Obiter dictum" is a mere saying by the way, a chance remark, which is not binding on the future Courts, though it may be respected according to reputation of the Judge, the eminence of the Court and the circumstances in which it came to be pronounced. The reason for not regarding an "obiter dictum" as binding is that it was probably made without a full consideration of the case on the point, and that, if very broad in its terms, it was probably made without a full consideration of all the consequences that may follow from it; or the judge may not have expressed a concluded opinion. ( Ref : Paper submitted in Third Workshop of 2005 on the Subject of Law of Precedents and appropriate use of case law in Court working by U.B. Shukla.)