Question:medium

Principle: Whoever causes death by rash or negligent act commits an offence.
Facts: X is having a house on the roadside which is also having a street on the back of the house. He has a lawn on the back of his house where he has built a toilet. To prevent the intruders from entering his house, he got the fence charged with a high voltage live electric wire. Z was passing through the street at the backyard of the house of X and sat down to take rest near the fence. While getting up, his hands came in contact with the fence which was connected to high voltage electric wire causing his death.
This question consists of legal principle(s) (hereinafter referred to as ‘principle‘) and facts. Such proposition may or may not be true in the real and legal sense, yet you have to conclusively assume them to be true for the purposes of this section. Principles have to be applied to the given facts to arrive at the most reasonable conclusion. Only one of the alternatives, i.e., (A), (B), (C), or (D) is the most reasonable conclusion. In other words, in answering the following questions, you must not rely on any principle except the principles that are given herein below for every question. Further you must not assume any facts other than those stated in the question. The objective of this section is to test your ability in legal aptitude, study of law, research aptitude and problem solving ability even if the ’most reasonable conclusion‘ arrived at may be absurd or unacceptable for any other reason.

Updated On: Jul 15, 2026
  • X has not committed any offence because he has right to prevent trespass
  • X has committed an offence of causing death by rash and negligent act
  • X has committed no offence because he does not have any enmity with X
  • X has committed an offence of Murder
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The Correct Option is B

Approach Solution - 1

The principle asks a single question, was the act that caused death rash or negligent. It is not concerned with whether the accused had a general right to protect his property, or whether he bore any personal grudge against the victim, those are separate issues from the character of the act itself.

X wired his boundary fence with a live high voltage current specifically to keep intruders out, but that fence ran along a public street where ordinary people, not just intruders, could and did come close enough to touch it. Deploying a potentially lethal current in a place where innocent passersby are foreseeably at risk is rash, the risk to people like Z who have no intention of trespassing was entirely predictable.

X's right to protect his home from intruders does not justify a method that endangers the general public on a street, and the absence of any enmity toward Z is irrelevant since the offence here turns on rashness, not on motive or on any targeted intention that would point toward murder instead.

So the correct answer is X has committed an offence of causing death by rash and negligent act.

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Approach Solution -2

Asking what fact would need to be different for each option to hold shows where the other three choices run into trouble.

  1. X has not committed any offence because he has right to prevent trespass: This would only work if the fence posed a risk only to actual intruders, but it ran along a public street where ordinary passersby like Z could come into contact with it, so the fact this option needs, that the danger was confined to trespassers, is missing.
  2. X has committed an offence of causing death by rash and negligent act: No change is needed, a lethal current on a fence next to a public street, foreseeably risky to passersby, already fits rashness and negligence exactly as the facts describe.
  3. X has committed no offence because he does not have any enmity with X: This would only matter if the principle turned on motive or relationship, but it turns on whether the act itself was rash, so the presence or absence of enmity changes nothing.
  4. X has committed an offence of Murder: This would require the fence to have been set up specifically to kill Z, with knowledge or intent directed at him, but the facts describe a general deterrent against intruders, not a targeted act against Z.

Since the danger to ordinary passersby was already foreseeable and no targeted intent toward Z exists in the facts, the option resting on rashness and negligence is the one that needs no unstated fact.

Therefore, the correct answer is X has committed an offence of causing death by rash and negligent act.

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Top Questions on Law of Torts

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Passage (extract): The work which Gandhiji had taken up was not only regarding the achievement of political freedom but also the establishment of a new social order based on truth and non-violence, unity and peace, equality and universal brotherhood and maximum freedom for all. A new order cannot be established without radically changing the mind and attitude of men towards property and, at some stage or the other, the 'haves' have to yield place to the 'have-nots'. We have seen, in our time, attempts to achieve a kind of egalitarian society and the picture of it after it was achieved. But this was done, by and large, through the use of physical force. It may even be that, like a gas kept confined within containers under great pressure, or water held back by a big dam, once the barrier breaks, the reaction will one day sweep back with a violence equal in extent and intensity to what was used to establish and maintain the outward egalitarian form. This enforced egalitarianism contains, in its bosom, the seed of its own destruction. If egalitarianism is to endure, it has to be based not on the possession of the maximum material goods by a few or by all but on voluntary, enlightened renunciation of those goods which cannot be shared by others or can be enjoyed only at the expense of others.

According to the passage, egalitarianism will not survive if
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Read the passage and answer the question.

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According to the passage, which was the unfinished part of Gandhi's experiment?
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Read the passage and answer the question.

Passage (extract): In the political struggle, the fight was against a foreign power and all one could do was either join it or wish it success and give it his/her moral support. Experience shows that man values his possessions even more than his life because in the former he sees the means for perpetuation and survival of his descendants even after his body is reduced to ashes. We have seen, in our time, attempts to achieve a kind of egalitarian society and the picture of it after it was achieved. But this was done, by and large, through the use of physical force. This enforced egalitarianism contains, in its bosom, the seed of its own destruction. The root cause of class conflict is possessiveness or the acquisitive instinct.

Which of the following statements is 'not true' in the context of the passage?
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