Criminal and Civil Responsibility in Forensics

Criminal responsibilities : Mc naughten rule, Durham rule, curren's rule
Civil legal proceedings, management of property and custody of his person, consent, business contract, evidence, guardianship, transfer of property, adoption

1. Criminal and civil responsibility Made by psychologist stella

2. Criminal Responsibilities McNaughten Rule: Daniel McNaughten, a 29 year Scotsman, labouring under delusion, shot dead Edward Drummond, the secretary to the British Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel. McNaughten was paranoid schizophrenic and had delusion that Sir Robert Peel was conspiring against him. He had intended to kill Sir Robert Pell but mistakenly killed Drummond.

3. The Jury, after hearing medical evidence of 9 physicians, found McNaughten not guilty by reasons of unsoundness of mind. They invited 15 eminent judges to the House of Lords and were requested to respond to series of questions on criminal responsibility of insane. The answers given by the learned judges were immortalized in the history and have come to be known as ‘McNaughten rule’ or ‘the legal test’ or “Right - wrong test”.

4. The McNaughten rule states that “to establish a defense on the ground of insanity, it must be clearly proved that at the time of committing the act, the party accused was labouring under such a defect of reason from the disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing or, if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong”.

5. Criticism of McNaughten Rule It is argued that for deciding insanity of a person, only cognitive (intellectual) factors or reasons are taken into consideration but other factors also influence the conduct and behaviour of a person such as 1 . Emotional factors 2. Ability of individual to control the impulse 3. Loss of self-control. It was held that McNaughten rule is old and obsolete and needs correction. Subsequent to McNaughten rule, new rules were provided and debated such as Curren’s rule, Durham’s rule, ALI etc.

6. Durham Rule (1954) The Durham’s rule states, “an accused is not criminally responsible if his unlawful act was the product of mental disease or mental defect ”. The rule states that the unlawful act of a person was product of mental disease or mental defect. The ambiguity was with reference to these words because what constitute mental disease or mental defect was not made clear or defined. Next thing was that the Judges would have to rely on the psychiatrists to decide whether the act was product of mental defect or disease; it means giving blank cheque to medical evidence.

7. Curren’s Rule (1961) The Curren’s rule states that “an accused person will not be criminally responsible, if at the time of committing the act, he did not have the capacity to regulate his conduct to the requirements of law, as a result of mental disease or defect”. So according to this rule, it was said that during the time of commission of crime, the individual may have knowledge that what he was doing was wrong but he neither had the capacity nor the will to control (adjust) his act. Therefore such person should not be held responsible.

8. APPLICATION OF FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY TO CIVIL LEGAL PROCEEDINGS C ivil proceedings involve disputes between private parties (Melton et al., 2007). Many such cases involve allegations that one party has been injured by another party (the defendant) and seek compensation for the damage that was done. Such actions are known as tort or personal injury cases.

9. Management of property and custody of his person Chapter 6 of MHA 1987 deals with management of property of mentally ill person . If a mentally ill person is incapable of taking care of himself, the District Court or the Collector of the district may appoint any suitable person to be his guardian

10. The district Court may appoint any suitable person to be manager for the property belonging to mentally ill person and to supervise the same. The Court may grant the manager the necessary power and may order the sale of property for the payment of his debts and expenses.

11. Consent According to section 90 of IPC, consent given by a person suffering from mental illness or of unsound mind, becomes invalid. It is because the person, by reason of unsoundness of mind, is unable to understand the nature and consequences of the act to which he gives consent. Similarly consent given by mentally ill female to the act of sexual intercourse becomes invalid and the act amounts to rape (Section 375 of IPC).

12. Business contract As per Indian Contract Act 1872, a contract becomes invalid, if at the time of doing such contract or making such contract, one of the parties was mentally ill. It is stated that by reason of unsoundness of mind, the person is incapable of understanding the nature and consequences of the contract. The mentally ill person is unable to form a rational judgment as to its effect up on his interests. Mental illness developing after contract does not make it invalid unless performance of service becomes impossible.

13. Evidence A mentally ill person is not considered as incompetent to give evidence, unless he is prevented by his mental illness from understanding the questions put to him and giving rational answers to them. In other words, a person suffering from mental illness can testify however, he should be able to understand the questions properly and answers them reasonably and accordingly. If the said mentally ill person is unable to understand the questions asked and answer them properly, the Court can consider him incompetent for evidence. A person suffering from mental illness but is in lucid interval is competent to give evidence.

14. Guardianship A mentally ill person cannot be act as a legal guardian of a minor.

15. Transfer of property According to the Transfer of Property Act 1882, only persons competent to contract are authorized to transfer property. In other words, person suffering from mental illness is not competent to transfer the property.

16. Adoption According to the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act 1956, any Hindu male, who is of sound mind and is not minor, can adopt a child with consent of his wife provided that his wife is of sound mind Any Hindu female, who is of sound mind and is not minor and is not married, can adopt a child.