IPC · Chapter IV · General exceptions

IPC section 104 in the BNS

IPC 104BNS 42

IPC section 104, “When such right extends to causing any harm other than death”, is now BNS section 42 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, in force from 1 July 2024.

What changed

From IPC 104 to BNS 42

Now BNS section 42, with the same rule; it refers to “section 41” instead of “the last preceding section”.

The official text

Old and new, side by side

Indian Penal Code, 1860

Section 104 When such right extends to causing any harm other than death

If the offence, the committing of which, or the attempting to commit which occasions the exercise of the right of private defence, be theft, mischief, or criminal trespass, not of any of the descriptions enumerated in the last preceding section, that right does not extend to the voluntary causing of death, but does extend, subject to the restrictions mentioned in section 99, to the voluntary causing to the wrong-doer of any harm other than death.

Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023

Section 42 When such right extends to causing any harm other than death

If the offence, the committing of which, or the attempting to commit which occasions the exercise of the right of private defence, be theft, mischief, or criminal trespass, not of any of the descriptions specified in section 41, that right does not extend to the voluntary causing of death, but does extend, subject to the restrictions specified in section 37, to the voluntary causing to the wrong-doer of any harm other than death.

The texts are India Code’s. The amendment markers and footnotes of the official print are left out, so the old section reads as it stood when it was repealed; State amendments are not shown. The PDFs linked below carry the full history.

Old law or new?

Which one applies to a case

The BNS repealed the IPC from 1 July 2024 (section 358(1)). The repeal does not reach back: under section 358(2), penalties and punishments incurred for offences committed against the IPC still stand, and proceedings for them may be started, continued and enforced as if the IPC had not been repealed. An act done before 1 July 2024 is therefore dealt with under the IPC section; an act done on or after that date, under the BNS.