Theories of Negligence

A contractor in Mumbai leaves an open pit on a busy road during the monsoon, with no barricade and no light. A scooter falls in and the rider dies. The contractor never wanted anyone to die. He did not even know a rider would be there. Is he a murderer? Plainly not. Is he blameless? Plainly not either. The law has a special category for this kind of fault: a failure to take the care that any sensible person would have taken. This topic explains what that category is, the two competing theories of what negligence really is, and when carelessness becomes a crime.

In two minutes

Negligence is a failure to take the care a reasonable person would take; the subjective theory treats it as a state of mind (inadvertence or indifference) and the objective theory treats it as conduct falling below a standard of care, and criminal law punishes it only where a section says so and, for serious harm, only when the negligence is gross, as in BNS s.106 (causing death by negligence).

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