TORTS OR WRONGS TO PERSONAL SAFETY AND FREEDOM :
An action for damages lies in the following kinds of wrongs which are styled as injuries to the person of an individual:
(a) Battery
Any direct application of force to the person of another individual without his consent or lawful justification is a wrong of battery. To constitute a tort of battery, therefore, two things are necessary: (i) use of force, however, trivial it may be without the plaintiff’s consent, and (ii) without any lawful justification.
Even though the force used is very trivial and does not cause any harm, the wrong is committed. Thus, even to touch a person in anger or without any lawful justification is battery.
(b) Assault
Assault is any act of the defendant which directly causes the plaintiff immediately to apprehend a contact with his person. Thus, when the defendant by his act creates an apprehension in the mind of the plaintiff that he is going to commit battery against him, the tort of assault is committed. The law of assault is substantially the same as that of battery except that apprehension of contact, not the contact itself has to be established. Usually when there is a battery, there will also be assault, but not for instance, when a person is hit from behind. To point a loaded gun at the plaintiff, or to shake fist under his nose, or to curse him in a threatening manner, or to aim a blow at him which is intercepted, or to surround him with a display of force is to assault him clearly if the defendant by his act intends to commit a battery and the plaintiff apprehends it, is an assault.
(c) Bodily Harm
A willful act (or statement) of defendant, calculated to cause physical harm to the plaintiff and in fact causing physical harm to him, is a tort.
(d) False Imprisonment
False imprisonment consists in the imposition of a total restraint for some period, however short, upon the liberty of another, without sufficient lawful justification. It means unauthorized restraint on a person’s body. What happens in false imprisonment is that a person is confined within certain limits so that he cannot move about and so his personal liberty is infringed. It is a serious violation of a person’s right and liberty whether being confined within the four walls or by being prevented from leaving place where he is. If a man is restrained, by a threat of force from leaving his own house or an open field there is false imprisonment.
(e) Malicious Prosecution
Malicious prosecution consists in instigating judicial proceedings (usually criminal) against another, maliciously and without reasonable and probable cause, which terminate in favour of that other and which results in damage to his reputation, personal freedom or property.
The following are the essential elements of this tort:
(i) There must have been a prosecution of the plaintiff by the defendant.
(ii) There must have been want of reasonable and probable cause for that prosecution.
(iii) The defendant must have acted maliciously (i.e. with an improper motive and not to further the end of justice).
(iv) The plaintiff must have suffered damages as a result of the prosecution.
(v) The prosecution must have terminated in favour of the plaintiff.
To be actionable, the proceedings must have been instigated actually by the defendant. If he merely states the fact as he believes them to a policeman or a magistrate he is not responsible for any proceedings which might ensue as a result of action by such policeman or magistrate on his/her own initiative.
This is because there is no malice involved in it. Malicious prosecution thus actually refers to the case of initial prosecution with malice and as a remedy for it, the other party who had won the case, may institute, under the law of torts, a suit for malicious prosecution.
(f) Nervous Shock
This branch of law is comparatively of recent origin. It provides relief when a person may get physical injury not by an impact, e.g., by stick, bullet or sword but merely by the nervous shock through what he has seen or heard. Causing of nervous shock itself is not enough to make it an actionable tort, some injury or illness must take place as a result of the emotional disturbance, fear or sorrow.
(g) Defamation
Defamation is an attack on the reputation of a person. It means that something is said or done by a person which affects the reputation of another. It is defined as follows:
“Defamation is the publication of a statement which tends to lower a person in the estimation of right thinking members of society generally; or which tends to make them shun or avoid that person.”
Defamation may be classified into two heads: Libel and Slander. Libel is a representation made in some permanent form, e.g. written words, pictures, caricatures, cinema films, effigy, statue and recorded words. In a cinema films both the photographic part of it and the speech which is synchronized with it amount to tort.
Slander is the publication of a defamatory statement in a transient form; statement of temporary nature such as spoken words, or gestures.
Generally, the punishment for libel is more severe than for slander.
Defamation is tort as well as a crime in India.
In India both libel and slander are treated as a crime. Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code recognizes both libel and slander as an offence. However, torts in criminal law are stricter than in law of tort.