Crime is an act or omission of an act which causes harm to the society as a whole and causes disturbance and panic in the society. Such an act is punishable by the criminal laws. Generally, most legal systems impose criminal liability only when a person performs a prohibited act or incur a forbidden injury with a guilty state of mind. There are four fundamental elements which go to constitute a crime; Human beings, Mens Rea, Actus Reus and Causation.

HUMAN BEINGS

The first element requires that the wrongful act must be committed by a human being. So, a human being as an element of crime must be under a legal obligation to act in a particular manner & should be a fit subject for awarding appropriate punishment. Section 11 of IPC provides that the word ‘Person’ includes a company or association or body of persons whether incorporated or not. The word ‘Person’ also includes artificial or juridical persons.

MENS REA

The second important element of crime is mens rea or evil intent or guilty mind. There can be no crime of any nature without mens rea or an evil mind. Every crime requires a mental element and that is considered as the fundamental principle of criminal liability. The basic requirements of the principle of mens rea is that the accused must have been aware of those elements in his act which make the crime with which he is charged. ‘Actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea’ which means that guilty intention & guilty act together constitutes a crime. It comes from the maxim that no person can be punished in a proceeding of criminal nature unless it can be showed that he had a guilty mind. In the case of Ravule Hariprashad Rao vs State, 1951, the SC held that unless a Statute either clearly or by necessary implication rules out mens rea as a constituent element of a crime, then, that person should not be held guilty of an offence unless he had guilty mind at the time of commission of the act. The apex court in the case of Nathulal v. State of Madhya Pradesh, observed that “Mens Rea is an essential ingredient of a criminal offence…..unless the statute expressly or by necessary implication excluded mens rea. The mere fact that the object of the statute is to promote the welfare of activities or to eradicate a grave social evil is by itself not decisive of the question whether the element of guilty mind is excluded from the ingredients of an offence. Mens rea by necessary implication may be excluded from a statute only where it is absolutely clear that the implementation of the object of the statute would otherwise be defeated.”

ACTUS REUS

The third essential element of a crime is actus reus. In other words, some over act or illegal omission must take place in pursuance of the guilty intention. Actus Reus is the manifestation of mens rea in the external world.

CAUSATION

A person is said to have caused the actus reus of a crime, if, that actus would not have occurred without his participation. Some causal relationships has to be established between his consent & prohibited result. A man is usually held criminally liable only for the consequences of his conduct as he foresaw. In cases of multiple causation, where it becomes very much difficult to establish the inputability. If the result is too remote & accidental in its occurrence, then, there is no criminal liability. In the case of Moti Singh vs State of UP, the SC held that mere fact that the two gunshots injuries were dangerous to life were not sufficient for establishing the death of the deceased, which took place after three weeks after the incident, was on account of injuries received by him.

Aishwarya Says:

I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.

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