In the case of Common Cause, A Registered Society v. Union of India & Ors. delivered on August 3, 1999, a Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices S Saghir Ahmad, K Venkataswan and S Babu discussed what a tort is in the following terms:
“Tort signifies an act which gives rise to a right of action, being a wrongful act or injury consisting in the infringement of a right created otherwise than by a contract. Torts are divisible into three classes, according as they consist in the infringement of a jus in rem, or in the breach of a duty imposed by law on a person towards another person, or in the breach of a duty imposed by law on a person towards the public.
The first class includes:
(b) torts to real property, such as ouster, trespass, nuisance, waste, subtraction, disturbance;
(c) torts to personal property, consisting:
(ii) in the infringement of a patent, trade mark, copyright, etc.;
(e) deprivation of service and consortium.
The second class includes deceit and negligence in the discharge of a private duty.
The third class includes those cases in which special damage is caused to an individual by the breach of a duty to the public.”
Winfield’s classic definition provides as under:
“Tortious liability arises from the breach of a duty primarily fixed by the law; such duty is towards persons generally and its breach is redressible by an action for unliquidated damages.”
Apart from tort which may be committed by a private individual, the officers of the Govt. would also be liable in damages for their wrongful acts provided the act does not fall within the purview of “act of the State.”
(This is an edited excerpt of the judgment of the Supreme Court.)