Short Essay on the Constitutional Tort – A tort is a civil wrong for which a remedy may be obtained in the form of damages (compensation).
According to Salmond, “a tort is a civil wrong for which the remedy is a common law action for liquidated damages, and which is not exclusively the breach of a contract or the breach of a trust or other merely equitable obligation”.
A constitutional tort is violation of one’s constitutional rights by a government officer/ governmental action.
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In a democratic republic like India interactions between the State and the citizens are large in their number, frequent in their periodicity and significant from the point of view of their effect on the lives and fortunes of the citizens.
Such interactions often result in infringement of the rights of the citizens. In India there is no legislation which governs the liability of the State for the torts committed by its servants.
However, Article 300 of the Constitution of India enumerates the liability of the Union or State in tortuous act of the Government. The first part of the Article relates to the way in which suits and proceedings by or against Government may be instituted.
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It enacts that the Government of India may sue or be sued by the name of the Union of India and the Government of State may sue and be sued by the name of the State.
The Second part provides, inter alia, that the Union of India or a State may sue or be sued in relation to its affairs in cases on the same line as that of Dominion of India or a corresponding Indian State as the case may be, might have sued or been sued if the Constitution had not been enacted.