Question:medium

Principle: Death caused by rash or negligent act of a person is an offence.
Facts: X was driving his SUV car in a lonely road leading to a forest at 160 km per hour. Suddenly, someone appears from the forest on the road and in the resultant accident, the car hits the commuter causing his death.

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In case of accidents, even if there is no intention to harm, if the act is negligent or reckless, the person can still be held liable for the injury or death caused.
Updated On: Jul 15, 2026
  • X is not guilty of an offence as the accident has occurred on a lonely road
  • X is not guilty because there was no intention to kill the deceased
  • X is guilty of an offence death by rash or negligent act
  • X is not guilty because he was also injured in the accident
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The Correct Option is C

Approach Solution - 1

Step 1: Understanding the Principle:
Causing death through a rash or negligent act is an offence, and intention to kill is not a requirement for it.

Step 2: Applying the Principle to the Facts:
X drove an SUV at 160 km/h on a road leading into a forest, a speed that gives almost no time to react if someone appears suddenly, which is exactly what happened, resulting in the commuter's death.

Step 3: Evaluating the Other Options:
The road being lonely does not excuse the speed, and there being no intent to kill does not matter since the offence only needs rashness or negligence. X being injured too does not change that the act causing death was rash.

Step 4: Final Answer:
X is guilty of causing death by a rash or negligent act, since driving at 160 km/h was clearly rash and directly caused the death.
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Approach Solution -2

Major premise: causing death through a rash or negligent act is an offence, with intention to kill playing no part in it. Minor premise: X drove an SUV at 160 km/h on a road leading into a forest, and someone appearing suddenly was struck and killed as a result. Testing the conclusions:

  1. Not guilty, due to the lonely road: This conclusion needs a premise that isolation excuses excessive speed, which the major premise does not contain; it asks only about rashness of the act itself.
  2. Not guilty, due to no intent to kill: This conclusion needs intention to be part of the offence, but the major premise explicitly frames the offence around rashness or negligence instead.
  3. Guilty of death by rash or negligent act: This follows directly, since 160 km/h on a road where anything could appear is rash driving, and that rashness caused the death described in the minor premise.
  4. Not guilty, since X was also injured: This conclusion needs the major premise to excuse a driver who is also hurt, which it does not; the offence turns on the rashness of the act, not on injuries to the driver.

Only the third option is the conclusion the major premise yields once the extreme speed in the minor premise is recognised as rashness causing death.

Therefore, the correct answer is X is guilty of an offence of death by rash or negligent act.

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