AIR 1964 SUPREME COURT 205 ::1964 MadLJ(Cri) 236 ::1964 BLJR 193 ::1964 Ker LT 656 ::1964 MPLJ 360 ::1964 Mah LJ 503 ::1964 (1) SCJ 417 ::1964 4 SCR 199 ::1963 2 SCWR 419 ::1963 SCD 991

Supreme Court Of India

(From Patna)*

Hon'ble Judge(s): B. P. Sinha, J. C. Shah, N. Rajagopala Ayyangar , JJJ

Penal Code (45 of 1860) , S.304A— Owner fixing live naked electric wire of high voltage across passage to his latrine to dissuade trespassers - No warning that wire was live one - Trespasser getting shock and some time after dying - Occupier is guilty of offence under S. 304 A - To become crime Act need not be actionable wrong - Laying of trap, if tort. Tort. A trespasser is not an outlaw, a caput lupinem. The mere fact that the person entering a land is a trespasser does not entitle the owner or occupier to inflict on him personal injury by direct violence and the same principle would govern the infliction of injury by indirectly doing something on the land the effect of which he must know was likely to cause serious injury to the trespasser. Thus one who sets live electric naked wire in the passage to the latrine, so that no trespasser should come and use the latrine, but there was no warning that the wire was live and a trespasser manages to pass into the latrine without contacting the wire but her hand happens to touch the same while coming out and as a result of a shock she receives injury, is guilty of a tort and the person injured is entitled to recover.(Para 7) It is, no doubt, true that the trespasser enters the property at his own risk and the occupier owes no duty to take any reasonable care for his pr....