Nitish Banka

    • Analyzing Negligence

    Negligence: Inviting disasters Negligence refers to doing of an act which a reasonable person would not do and not doing an act which a reasonable person would do. Negligence is both, civil and criminal. In general, Criminal negligence is negligence that is aggravated, culpable .On the other hand, civil negligence often the breach of duty of care which injury or, loss. For civil cases, the ingredients required are the duty of care, breach of theta duty of care, causation, i.e., the underlying link between the defendant’s act and the injury or loss and finally, the injury caused. In criminal law, according to Section 304 A of the IPC,

    i.e., “Causing death by negligence.–Whoever causes the death of any person by doing any rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.” Negligence has resulted in several cases of road and other accidents. In a statemenJustice Sathasivam mentioned that in India 120,000 people die every year. Along with this, 127,000 people sustain injuries every  year in road accidents. Also, as per the statistics, there is one death on the Indian roads every six minutes and this is expected to quicken to one death every three minutes. This has also become a gateway for severindividuals to escape away from the crimesthey have committed. Instances being the involvement of some big names in some well-known cases. This is just one aspect. Negligence in the other aspect which touches our daily life is in the form of consumerism. This phenomenon usually occurs from both the sides, i.e., the buyer and the consumer. The act ranges from buying of articles which can no longer be brought in use to paying an illegitimate amount for a good which is not worth it. The sections of Consumer Protection Act are also taken under the purview of Section 304A of IPC for the issues of damages and compensation. The maxim here that lies is, sic utere tuo ut alienum non loedas, i.e., a person is held liable for the consequences of his negligence. The next and the most dangerous of all is the negligence which results in natural calamities, the recent one being the Uttarakhand case. Ignoring the needs of nature has always resulted in nature showing its fearful colours. The top ten of all amongst the deadliest natural disasters which have occurred in India are “the great famine of 1876-1878”, “the third plague pandemic”, “Bengal famine of 1770”, “Bengal famine of 1943”, “Deccan famine of 1632-33”, “1839 Coringa cyclone”, “1737 Calcutta cyclone”, “2001 Gujarat earthquake”, 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and the “1993 Latur earthquake”. Evidently,

    environment is an issue which has always been in the locked box of negligence both in the cases of the ruled and the ruling mass. Sadly, environment has never been an agenda in any policy though it affects our lives the most. Plants and animals, even we form a part of the same. It, therefore, is our responsibility to preserve the same, so that along with this our needs also get fulfilled. A disaster like that of Uttarakhand’s has to be swerved to evade the loss of human resources.

    By-: Tejaswini Ranjan

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