Topic - ELEMENTS OF CRIME

©Ms. Meera Mathew, Assistant Professor, SLS-N

 Elements of a Crime

▪ Who - Human beings - Offender and Victim?

▪ Actus Reus
▪ Mensrea
▪ Effect – Inchoate/ Causing injury to State/ body/property/reputation
 I Human Being – IPC
▪ Section 10- Man & Woman NALSA v UOI (2014) 5 scc 438
▪ Section 8 – Gender Navtej Singh Johar & Ors. v. Union of India (2018) 10 SCC 791
▪ Section 11- Person “The court cannot amend those sections and state she includes he”
▪ Legal Personality or Jural Personality - lex non cogit ad impossibilia (law compels no impossibility) If an
enactment requires what is legally impossible it will be presumed that Parliament intended it to be modified so
as to remove the impossibility element
▪ Company/Corporations - Standard Chartered Bank And ors v Directorate Of Enforcement And ors. ... Citation –
AIR 2005 SC 2622
▪ Religious Institutions -
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/god-is-not-a-juristic-person-but-idol-is-says-apex-court-in-ayodhya-c
ase/articleshow/72134544.cms
▪ Animals -
https://www.businessinsider.in/animals-are-now-legal-persons-an-indian-court-expects-citizens-to-be-their-gu
ardians/articleshow/69586502.cms
▪ Unborn child - https://indiankanoon.org/doc/149664324/
▪ River/s - https://swachhindia.ndtv.com/ganga-and-yamuna-are-not-living-entities-rules-supreme-court-9716/
 IIActus Reus– IPC
▪ Section 33- Act, Omission
▪ Section 32
▪ Section 39
▪ Omission to Act – Duty (legal duty)
▪ Duty arising out of Contract – R v Pitwood Railway gatekeeper (1902) TLR 37
▪ Duty arising from fiduciary relation – R v Gibbons and Proctor (1918) 13 Cr App Rep
134 & Airedale National Health Service Trust v Bland (1993) AC 789
▪ Duty arising in the due Course - R v Miller [1983] 2 AC 161
• Conduct crime & Result crime
 III Mensrea– IPC - Intention
▪ Not defined
▪ Synonyms- Read sections 24,25
▪ Levels of Mensrea – Intention, Knowledge, Negligence & Rashness
I Intention(Purpose Dolus) – Direct/Indirect= Specific/General/Oblique Intention
▪ Transfer of Malice
▪ Cases-
▪ R v Moloney [1985] 1 AC 905
▪ R v Nedrick [1986] 1 WLR 102
▪ R v Woollin. R v Woollin [1999] AC 82
 Mensrea (cont…)Knowledge
II Knowledge (Dolus eventualis) -
▪ Actual knowledge – “direct and clear knowledge where the relevant party is aware of a
particular item of event that causes a breach”. It can be demonstrated through
circumstantial evidence and if the circumstances are such that the defendant must have
known,' an inference of actual knowledge is permitted”
▪ Constructive knowledge-  knowledge that a person is presumed by law to have,
regardless of whether he/she actually does, since knowledge is obtainable by the
exercise of reasonable care
▪ Willful blindness -The doctrine of wilful blindness imputes knowledge to an accused
whose suspicion is aroused to the point where he or she sees the need for further
inquiries, but deliberately chooses not to make those inquiries. Wilful blindness has also
been described as the state of “deliberate ignorance” of a certain facts
▪ Read- https
://www.cilexlawschool.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/HQ03-Criminal-Law-Sample-
2019.pdf
 Mensrea (cont…)Recklessness, Negligence
& Rashness
Recklessness (conscious culpa)
A person acts recklessly with respect to:
(i) a circumstance, when he is aware of a risk that it exists or will exist;
(ii) a result, when he is aware of a risk that it will occur;
and it is, in the circumstances known to him, unreasonable to take the risk.
R v G and another [2003] UKHL 50

III Negligence (Culpa)- Section 304A - Jacob Mathew vs. State of Punjab & Anr. (2005) 6 SCC 1
– “in order to make a doctor criminally responsible for the death of a patient, it must be established
that there was negligence or incompetence on the doctor’s part which went beyond a mere
question of compensation on the basis of civil liability. Criminal liability would arise only if the doctor
did something in disregard of the life and safety of the patient ”

Negligence is the objective mens rea criterion- your behaviour is compared to that of a
reasonable prudent person
 Mensrea (cont…)Recklessness, Negligence
& Rashness

Rashness

• Rash is Primarily over hasty act, it is opposed to a deliberate act.

• Act as a component used in offences where precaution by State is visible – so
that many incidents can be avoided.
• doing an act with the consequences of a risk without due diligence.
• Read sections 279, 280, 284 of IPC
In IPC, negligence or rashnes is used synonymously.

Read RECKLESSNESS UNDER THE INDIAN PENAL CODE by Stanley Meng Heong
Yeo at
http://14.139.60.114:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/17196/1/008_Recklessness%2
 IVEffect
▪ Incomplete
▪ Complete
▪ If not a crime- there is legal impossibility- (Necrophilia, Incest- not a crime- so cant be charged)
▪ Conduct Crime / Result Crime
▪ Effect to what?-
▪ Property?
▪ Body?
▪ State?
▪ Public tranquility
▪ Public Justice