Trespass

 

Introduction

It’s also seen that you want to protect your body and properties, be it movable or immovable. People usually seem anxious about the vulnerability of their person or property to negative elements,who are willing to misappropriate and exploit their wealth with Mala Fide intent. That apprehension of large sections is what the iron hands of the law need to deal with.
The law provides for the acts to be recovered with compensation or punishment. These actions may lie from a mere intentional touch to one’s person with a malicious intention of intrusion into one’s property without assigning any reason for the action.
The law is often applied and evolved to strike a delicate balance between private rights to others’ exclusion and socially valuable public and private interests that are sometimes served by allowing unauthorized access. Hence the identification of the precise problem and its solution becomes extremely necessary.Trespass is both civil and criminal wrong because it can cause injury, i.e., infringement of legal rights, as well as substantial damage to one’s person and property if a physical attack occurs.
Trespass law is commonly presented as a fairly straightforward doctrine which protects landowners from opportunistic intrusions

 

Types of Trespass

Trespass Against Person

It is the cause of apprehension of undue interference with one’s individual and body as well as a third party, which involves the use of force that causes harm and injury in the body. In an ulterior motive, the trespasser transgresses another’s right and allows an alteration in it with the purpose of causing, as the case may be, wrongful loss or wrongful benefit. Even if the wrongdoer did not realize that the property belonged to another, it is considered deliberate.
Assault: It induces excessive fear of body injury and harm in another person’s mind, which is typically a prelude to a battery. It can be given effect in such a way as to make those acts and signs indicative of another’s attack. That can be direct as well as indirect. It can be done either by the person himself, or by a third party.
Here an significant factor of predictability is needed that causes anxiety, as it is necessary that one is able to conceive after seeing something that causes irrational fear. Section 351 of Indian Penal Code defines assault. Essentials of assault include:
• Intent
• Apparent ability to carry out the purpose
• Apprehension
• Knowledge of threat
Battery: The use of force on another person without fair excuse. Nonetheless, battery consists of directly or indirectly influencing another person hostilely, or against his will. Direct force can be like hitting a person while indirect force can be like putting a dog behind a person or spitting on a person. According to section 350 of the Indian Penal Code, battery refers to ‘use of illegal force.’ What’s required is for the misconduct to include physical contact. Essentials of battery include:
• Direct or indirect physical contact without lawful justification
• Use of force
• It must be voluntary
Accidental touch or push in the market is not wrongful and does not constitute battery.
False imprisonment: This is called false imprisonment if someone’s path is unlawfully blocked from all practicable directions to prevent him / her from going in one direction for some time, however short. It is known as unlawful imprisonment under the Indian Penal Code.

Defense against trespass to body –

1. Consent to Plantiff: If the complainant consented to the particular act with the defendant then it can not be argued that the defendant is trespassing if there is common agreement between the parties for the act.
2. Contributory negligence: If the act includes a complainant’s negligence, then the liability of the defendant can be mitigated to the extent that compromises can be reached or that liability can be divided.
3. Self-defence: A person may trespass on the property to prevent the act from being consummated in order to defend himself from an unruly individual or some other such person or incidents. However, when using the plaintiff’s property to intrude, proportionality and probability should be kept in mind and so the defendant must show that there was no other choice for the defendant other than to intrude on the plaintiff’s property.
4. Statutory authority: Authorities required by law to carry out searches and seizures, and cases where consent is obtained to carry out a physical search would not be construed as a trespass on a person’s body. Entry into public places and private property used for commercial purposes is not a trespass considering the interests of society and the general public.
5. Preservation of public peace

Trespass Against Property

Trespass against movable property like goods

It is the wrongful or forceful interference with another’s goods. In one important aspect, it differs from trespass to land that there is no need for wrongful intention or negligence in order to infringe goods. A threat to possession of goods leads to a conversion that is distinct from trespass to goods, and can be elucidated by an example of goods harm provided by the claimant in a railway cloakroom with workers there instead of giving it, throwing it down and destroying it.

Trespass against immovable property like land

Trespass is usually a error against ownership, and is often possible against the owners themselves.No one has the right to dispose of the trespasser while he is in secured possession of a property and can’t be dismissed unless the proper legal procedure is followed. The property that a trespasser is entitled to protect against the rightful owner must be a negotiated property that lasts for a reasonably long period of time and that the true owner acquiesces to. A casual act of possession does not disturb the legitimate proprietor’s possession.

Conclusion

Individuals will face infringement countless times in a day, but what is crucial is to clearly understand the essence of the trespassed act, its land, damage and its effect on the complainant. If the essence of the act itself indicates a wrongful accident, knowingly committed to limit the enjoyment of the right to exclude from private property, then determination should be found of all practicable remedies for restoring the damage. The four tests, when deciding trespass disputes, courts should evaluate the following factors:

(1) the nature and character of the trespass; (2) the nature of the protected property; (3) the amount and substantiality of the trespass; and (4) the impact of the trespass on the owner’s property interest.

It will help to discover various complexities and grasp the dimensions that trespass law clutches in its circuitous context so as to efficiently loosen the screws and solve cases and circumstances. The true sense of each word must be grasped by applying the applicable doctrines to determine trespass and resolve the cases.

Author: AVI SHRIVASTAVA,
Jagran Lakecity University, Bhopal 1st Year