The Common Law in India - College of Social Sciences and ...

Criminal Law 147It was laid down in that opinion that a person accusedof crime could not be acquitted on the ground ofinsanity unless it was proved that the delusion hewas suffering from was such as prevented him fromknowing the nature of the act which he did or ifhe did know it that he did not know that he wasdoing wrong. 72 The provision in the Penal Code whichstates that nothing is an offence which is done by aperson who at the time of doing it is, by reason ofunsoundness of mind, incapable of knowing the natureof the act or that he is doing what is wrong orcontrary to law is in substance based on the principlelaid down in that case. 73Drunkenness: At common law a person who becomesdrunk as a result of his own voluntary act isnot excused from criminal liability by reason of hisdrunkenness alone; for a person though drunk maybe capable of forming an intention and therefore ofcommitting a crime." The position in India is notdifferent. The law provides that the act of a personwho at the time of doing it is by reason of intoxicationincapable of knowing the nature of the act orthat he is doing what is either wrong or contraryto law will not be an offence only if the thing whichintoxicated him was administered to him without hisknowledge or against his will.Mistake : In England, excepting in the cases whereproof of mens rea is unnecessary, bona fide mistake" B. v. M'Naghten (1843) 10 C.L. & P. 202; 4 St.Tr.(u.s.) 847.73Indian Penal Code, s. 84. Eatanlal, Law of Crimes, 18th ed.,pp. 162, 163.74Halsbury, Laics of England, 3rd ed., Vol. 10, p. 289, para. 535.