Section 304A Ingredients:
- Death is caused by an act of the accused.
- The act was caused or committed rashly or negligently.
- The death must not be culpable homicide or murder.
This section deals with homicide by negligence and covers that class of offences, where death is caused neither intentionally nor with the knowledge that the act of the offender is likely to cause death, but because of the rash and negligent act of the offender. This clause limits itself to rash and negligent acts which cause death, but falls short of culpable homicide of either description. When any of these two elements, namely, intention or knowledge, is present, section 304A has no application.
The act of causing death is the actus reus and causing such death by the rash or negligent attitude is the mens rea. The act to be prohibited by law must be that very act of the accused which is the direct cause of the death. The act should prima facie indicate the death. The act should be the result of the rash or negligent attitude. The rashness or negligence should be in existence at the time of the commission of the act. If the guilty mind of rashness or negligence is absent at the time of the commission of the act then that act will not come under this section. So both actus reus and mens rea, i.e. the act of causing death and rashness or negligence must concur to each other.
There is a distinction between a rash act and a negligent act.
“Rashness” conveys the idea of recklessness or doing of an act without due consideration and “negligence” connotes want of proper care.
A rash act implies an act done by a person with recklessness or indifference as to its consequences. The doer, being conscious of the mischievous or illegal consequences, does the act knowing that his act may bring some undesirable or illegal results but without hoping or intending them to occur.
A negligent act, on the other hand, refers to an act done by a person without taking sufficient precautions or reasonable precautions to avoid its probable mischievous or illegal consequences.
It implies an omission to do something, which a reasonable man, in the given circumstances, would not do.
The term “negligence” as used in this section does not mean mere carelessness. The rashness or negligence must be of such nature so as to be termed as a criminal act of negligence or rashness.
Section 80 of the IPC provides
“nothing is an offence which is done by accident or misfortune and without any criminal knowledge or intention in the doing of a lawful act in a lawful manner by a lawful means and with proper care and caution”. It is absence of such proper care and caution, which is required of a reasonable man in doing an act, which is made punishable under this action.
