MOTIVE V INTENTION
Posted on Saturday, December 01, 2012 by Unknown
(1)
Motive came from the Latin word
‘CAUSA’ which is define as cause/reason, motive, pretext/interest while Intention in Latin word is called ‘MENS REA’ which is define as mind,
thought, intention, intellect.
(2)
Intention is divisible into immediate act and
ulterior object. This ulterior object is called motive. For a better understanding, we can see it in an example.
(‘XX’ a robber,
robs a person to purchase a bottle of wine for himself.)
Here the act of ‘robbing’
is the ‘immediate act’ and this immediate act is called “INTENTION”, while the
thinking ‘XX’ to ‘purchase the wine’ is the ulterior object. This ulterior
object is called as ‘MOTIVE’.
In other word,
intention means the conscious objective or purpose. Thus, a person commits a
criminal act with intention when that person’s conscious objective or purpose
is to engage in the act which the law forbids or to bring about an unlawful
result. Meanwhile motive is the reason why a person chooses to engage in
criminal conduct.
(3)
Intention in Criminal Law is
always bad and evil while motive can sometimes be good or bad.
(4)
It is the general rule that
motive is irrelevant in determining the criminal liability while intention is a relevant and important ingredient
in determining the criminal liability. However motive can be a big help in
proving the intention of the accused person and it can be tendered as an
evidence in court as the circumstantial evidence.
(5)
Intention is relevant in
determining the question of criminal liability but in criminal law good motives
are not concern with. This is because at the end the intention cannot be
justify.
(6)
In the case of Emperor vs.
Raghunatha Rai 1892, some Hindus forcibly removed two cows from its owner to
save them from slaughter, in the view of their religion.
The court did not consider their motive to protect the
cows from slaughter. It considered that the Hindus were guilty of offence, as
their “immediate act” i.e. removal of cows from the possession of the owner was
bad in law.
Salmond said that,
“the point will judge a man by what he does and not by the reasons for which he
does it”
(7)
Besides that, Intention is
relevant in criminal and civil liability but motive is only relevant in some
exceptional cases in civil liability such as defamation, malicious prosecution,
etc.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 Response to "MOTIVE V INTENTION"
-
Nada Says....Motive and intention must be distinguished. A person's intention is his his decision to do or not to do a particular act but his motive is the reason which formed that decision. Evidence of motive is relevant and material in criminal cases but when there is a direct evidence that the accused had committed the crime, the question of motive becomes irrelevant. However when a case depends on circumstantial evidence the issue as to motive become important.
Leave A Reply