Offences affecting the human body

Two friends argue outside a cricket ground in Navi Mumbai. One pushes the other, who falls, hits his head on the kerb and dies three days later. Is the pusher guilty of murder, of a lesser killing, or only of hurt? The law's answer turns on what he intended, what he knew, and how serious the injury was. The offences against the human body are the oldest in any criminal code, and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita arranges them by one test: how much harm, and with what state of mind.

In two minutes

Under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, killing is culpable homicide (s.100) which becomes murder (s.101, punished by s.103) if it meets the listed intentions or knowledge and no Exception applies, non-fatal injury is hurt (s.114) or grievous hurt (s.116), and the body is also protected against restraint, force, assault, kidnapping, abduction and rape (ss.126–146 and 63–64).

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