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" MENTAL ABNORMALITY MENTAL ABNORMALITY   vis‑vis   CRIMINAL LIABILITY OF AN ACCUSED   BY   Major Hafiz Zafar Iqbal, Judge Advocate, Judge Advocate‑General's Department, General Headquarters   1. INTRODUCTION:   Criminal liability of an accused person may be determined only if the act contemplated by him falls within the ambit of a 'crime'; and an act cannot be regarded as an offence or crime unless it meets the following requirements, as propounded by the American Criminal Law Scholar Jerome Hall:‑‑   (a) The accused must have done an act.   (b) The act must be a wrongful or an illegal one.   (c) The act must be harmful.   (d) The act must cause or produce the desired results.   (e) The act was committed with a guilty intention.   (f) The criminal act must be accompanied by an equal criminal mind.   (g) The law has prescribed punishment for the act.   If any of the above requirements are not met' with, the act will remain short of a crime and no criminal liability can be attached to the accused person. The basic principle of Criminal law, however, is that no criminal liability is attached to a person unless he has done a wrongful act with criminal intent. Thus, the actus reus and mens rea will determine the criminal liability of an accused person. Failure to prove actus reus and mens rea would obliviates the criminal liability of the accused. Since mental abnormality, provided it be a total abnormality or complete unconsciousness, negatives mens rea, it .is considered and accepted as an important legal defence in criminal law. But mental abnormality which renders the accused incapable of committing a crime and obliviates his criminal liability, is distinct from ordinary…