CONCLUSION
The word “nuisance” is derived from the French word “nuire”, which means “to do hurt, or to
annoy”. One in possession of a property is entitled as per law to undisturbed enjoyment of it.
According to Salmond, “the wrong of nuisance consists in causing or allowing without lawful
justification the escape of any deleterious thing from his land or from elsewhere into land in
possession of the plaintiff, e.g. water, smoke, fumes, gas, noise, heat, vibration, electricity,
disease, germs, animals”.
ESSENTIALS OF NUISANCE:-In order that nuisance is actionable tort, it is essential that
there should exist:·wrongful acts; damage or loss or inconvenience or annoyance caused to
another. Inconvenience or discomfort to be considered must be more than mere delicacy or
fastidious and more than producing sensitive personal discomfort or annoyance. Such
annoyance or discomfort or inconvenience must be such which the law considers as
substantial or material. Nuisance is of two kinds: Public Nuisance Under Section 3 (48) of
the General Clauses Act, 1897, the words mean a public nuisance defined by the Indian Penal
Code.
Section 268 of the Indian Penal Code, defines it as “an act or illegal omission which causes
any common injury, danger or annoyance, to the people in general who dwell, or occupy
property, in the vicinity, or which must necessarily cause injury, obstruction, danger or
annoyance to persons who may have occasion to use any public right.”
Private Nuisance Private nuisance is the using or authorising the use of one’s property, or of
anything under one’s control, so as to injuriously affect an owner or occupier of property by
physically injuring his property or affecting its enjoyment by interfering materially with his
health, comfort or [Link] speaking, public nuisance is an act affecting the
public at large, or some considerable portion of it; and it must interfere with rights which
members of the community might otherwise enjoy.
Statutory Authority :-Where a statute has authorised the doing of a particular act or the use
of land in a particular way, all remedies whether by way of indictment or action, are taken
away; provided that every reasonable precaution consistent with the exercise of the statutory
powers has been taken. Statutory authority may be either absolute or conditional. In case of
absolute authority, the statute allows the act notwithstanding the fact that it must necessarily
cause a nuisance or any other form of injury.
The law of nuisance is almost an uncodified one. Yet it has grown and expanded through
interpretation and through a plethora of judgments. The concept of nuisance is one that arises
most commonly in a man’s daily life and the decision regarding the same has to be delivered
on a case to case base ensuring that neither the aggrieved plaintiff goes back uncompensated
nor the defendant is punished unnecessarily. Indian Courts in the matters of nuisance have
borrowed quite intensively from the English principles as well as from the decisions of the
common law system along with creating their own precedents. This has resulted in a sound
system of law being developed that ensures fairness and well being of all i.e. the parties and
the society at large.