According to Winfield “Negligence is the breach of a legal duty to take care which results in damage, undesired by the defendant to the plaintiff.” In other words, negligence is a breach of duty caused by omission to do something which a reasonable man guided upon consideration which ordinarily regulates the conduct of human affairs would do, doing something which a prudent or reasonable man would not do. There are two theories evolved around Negligence one is ‘Subjective theory’ and other is ‘Objective theory’.
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According to Salmond, Negligence is a state of culpable carelessness, he gave subjective theory of negligence, according to which, negligence is a state of mind. According to Austin, negligence is a faulty mental condition which is penalised by award of damages. On the other hand, there is objective theory of negligence wherein negligence is a conduct of the defendant. According to Pollock, it is not a particular state of mind or form of mens rea at all but a particular kind of conduct. It is a breach of duty to take care and to take care means to take precautions against the harmful results of one’s action and to refrain from unreasonably dangerous kind of conduct.
