Key differences in criminal and civil laws

Criminal laws mainly focus on the conduct of an individual that is offensive to the public, society at large,
or the law of the land. Examples of criminal laws include theft, drunken driving, murder, assault, etc.

Whereas, civil law has its primary focus on the behaviour of an individual, or say, an organisation, which
can inflict injury or harm on any private person or individual. Examples of civil law include defamation,
whether libel or slander; breach of contract; negligence causing death or harm to any private party or an
individual, etc.

A tabular representation of the difference between criminal and civil law

Below is a tabular representation of the difference between criminal and civil law-

Pointers Criminal law Civil law

Civil law is a general law that deals with

Criminal law deals with offences that are
Deals with issues that are on an individual or
perpetrated against society at large.
organisational level.

The main object of civil law is to safeguard

Criminal law penalises the convicts, safeguards the rights of a person or an organisation. It
Objective the citizens and makes sure that law and order makes sure that the wrongs committed by an
are followed. individual are corrected and that the victim is
negated for such wrongdoing.

The role of criminal litigation is to punish the The role of civil litigation is to compensate
Goal
defendant. the plaintiff for the injury/damage caused.

The punishment for committing a criminal
offence would be dependent on the gravity of
Punishment the crime thus committed. Thus, the punishment
can range from fines to detention or both, at
times.
In civil law, there is a settlement of disputes
between individuals or organisations by way
of compensation. Further, there is no grave
punishment like that of criminal law being
provided for civil matters.

In the case of criminal law, the government of

India files a petition. Further, a petition cannot be
Filing of filed directly in a court; rather the party has to
petition approach the police first and then the crime
needs to be investigated, only then a case can be
filed.
In the case of civil law, the affected party or
organisation files a petition. The case can be
filed in a court or tribunal depending on the
damages.

In criminal cases, the court can levy fines, deliver In civil cases, the court can only pass a ruling
Passing a
punishments like detention, or release the to make up for the injury/damage to the
verdict
defendant. affected party.

In civil cases, the defendant is either

Status of In criminal cases, the defendant is either held to
considered liable or not liable for the
defendant be guilty or not guilty by the court.
damages.

Civil law mainly deals with matters relating to

Criminal law mostly deals with grave offences
Examples property or housing, money, divorce, custody
such as murder, rape, robbery, etc.
of a child in the event of a divorce, etc.