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Bucha Lal vs Rex on 8 July, 1948

6. It is now settled position in law that mens rea is an essential ingredient of a statutory offence but this may be rebutted by the express words of a statute creating the offence or by necessary implication. In deciding whether mens rea excluded as a necessary constituent of a crime, it is necessary to find whether the offence consists in doing a prohibited act or in failing to perform a duty which only arises if a particular state of affairs exists. If a statute contains an absolute prohibition against the doing of some act, mens rea not a constituent of the offence but where it only imposes a duty to do something on the happening of a certain event, mens rea would be required to be proved. In the instant case an analyst of the various provisions of the Act, the breach of which has been alleged against the applicants, would show that those provisions only impose a duty and did not contain absolute prohibition against doing some act. Hence it does not appear to me to be correct, as urged by Sri V. P. Goel, that in view of the absolute prohibition imposed by the Act. the owner was liable for the act of his servant irrespective of the guilty mind. Hence on consideration of the language of the various provisions of the Act, in my opinion, mens rea is a necessary element of the offence defined in the Act. The view taken by me is supported by an authority of this Court reported in Buchcha Lal v. Rex AIR 1949 All 11 : 50 Cri LJ 20 and State v. Bhagwan Singh .
Allahabad High Court Cites 11 - Cited by 4 - Full Document
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