Tort law in India
National flag of Republic of India
|
|
| Legal system | |
|---|---|
| Common law | |
| Sources of tort law | |
| Common law | |
| Statutes | |
| Categories of tort law | |
| Assault | |
| Battery | |
| False imprisonment | |
| Negligence | |
| Professional negligence | |
| Contributory negligence | |
| Defamation | |
| Economic torts | |
| Conspiracy | |
| Fraud | |
| Intentional interference | |
| Restraint of trade | |
| Land torts | |
| Trespass | |
| Nuisance | |
| Rule in Rylands v Fletcher | |
| Constitutional torts | |
Tort law in India is a relatively new common law development supplemented by codifying statutes including statutes governing damages. While India generally follows the UK approach, there are certain differences which may indicate judicial activism, hence creating controversy. Tort is breach of some duty independent of contract which has caused damage to the plaintiff giving rise to civil cause of action and for which remedy is available. If there is no remedy it cannot be called a tort because the essence of tort is to give remedy to the person who has suffered injury.
Tort law in India, like her common law counterparts, stems from both statute and common law.
Similar to other common law countries, aspects of tort law have been codified. Furthermore, the Indian Penal Code criminalises certain areas of tort law.
As tort law is a relatively young area of law in India, apart from referring to local judicial precedents, courts have readily referred to case law from other common law jurisdictions, such as UK, Australia, and Canada.
However, attention is given to local socio-cultural practices and conditions in applying foreign legal principles. The legislature have also created statutes to provide for certain social conditions; for example, due to the nature of Indian families, a statute was passed to simplify determination of damages in the event of family members.
Indian courts have held that to constitute assault it is not necessary that there should be some actual hurt caused. A threat constitutes assault.
The ingredients are set out below:
The criteria for battery is equivalent to that of criminal force defined in Section 350 of the Indian Penal Code.
False imprisonment "is the complete deprivation of his liberty for any time, however short, without lawful cause ... There need not be any actual imprisonment in the ordinary sense."
The ingredients of this tort are listed below:
In regard to negligence, Indian jurisprudence have approved the approach stated in Ratanlal & Dhirajlal: The Law of Torts, laying down three elements:
...
Wikipedia