The concept of Negligence under The Indian Penal Code a critical evaluation of the judicial approach

Abstract

newlineNegligence always remains a questionable basis of criminal liability owing to the newlinefact that it is a state of total inadvertence and unlike the other fault elements, there is no newlineactive mental faculty involved. No student of criminal law can fail to take note of the newlineinteresting debates that surround criminalisation of negligence among the scholarship newlineworldwide. Competing philosophies are equally strong and the stand one shall take with newlinerespect to punishing negligent conduct will ultimately depend upon the individualistic newlineperceptions of blameworthiness and its importance to criminal law. newlineIt is in this background that the thought of how relevant these debates are in India newlinearose. The criminal law in India is codified and the Indian Penal Code exist as the most newlinetriumphant Code of all times. It aimed at alleviating the uncertainties and complexities of newlinethe Common Law system. The unique drafting of the Code with explanations and newlineillustrations where all directed towards achieving this aim. But the weakness of the Indian newlinePenal Code lay in the lack of a general part explaining the various terms, especially the newlineterms expressing fault elements under its provisions. This meant that ample opportunities newlinefor judicial interpretation was accommodated within the Code. As the Courts applied the provisions of the Code penalising negligent conduct, on newlineseveral occasions it was torn between the common law sentiments considering newlineblameworthiness a pre-requisite for criminalisation and the principle that where the newlinelegislature has created a statute, the statutory provisions should be given priority. A newlinemiddle way was gradually forged utilising the uncertainty surrounding the meaning of newlinefault terms in the Penal Code. Courts started interpreting the meaning and scope of newlinenegligence under the Code on a case-to-case basis concerning themselves only with doing newline justice to the case at hand. And where justice demanded different connotations in newlinedifferent circumstances, it was gamely given by the courts.