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The Law Easy

B.N.S. 2023

Section 3, B.N.S.

In force from 1 July 2024

Study material

Explained in

Published material from The Law Easy that cites Section 3.

Notes and articles

B.N.S. Complete notes

B.N.S.: Complete Notes

Criminal Law explains why the law punishes one person and lets another go free, even when both have done something that looks the same from the outside.

120 min read

B.N.S.

General Defences: Sections 14–18 B.N.S.

Sections 14 to 18 of the B.N.S. are the first general defences. Each one answers a familiar plea made by a person who has hurt someone or taken away someone's liberty:

17 min read

B.N.S.

Joint and Group Liability: Common Intention and Common Object

The central idea of this topic is simple: a plan can divide the work, but the law refuses to divide the guilt. When people commit a crime together, the law can hold each of them responsible for what the group did, even for a blow struck by another person.

24 min read

Practice MCQs

7 practice questions test this section.

  1. 1 According to the lecture, when does a person's failure to act amount to an 'illegal omission' under the B.N.S.?
  2. 2 According to the ruling in Shankarlal Kacharabhai v. State of Gujarat, as explained in the lecture, which statement correctly states when an act is done 'in furtherance' of a common intention?
  3. 3 In Barendra Kumar Ghosh v. Emperor (1924), the accused said that he had only been standing outside the room and had not fired the fatal shot at the sub-postmaster. According to the Privy Council, what was the effect of t...
  4. 4 In Barendra Kumar Ghosh v. King Emperor, the accused argued that he only stood outside in the courtyard and that Section 34, IPC could apply only to a person who himself did the act that caused death. What did the Privy...
  5. 5 In Krishna Govind Patil v. State of Maharashtra, four men were accused of beating a man to death. The High Court acquitted three of them and convicted the second accused of murder read with Section 34, IPC, on the reason...
Practise B.N.S. MCQs

Official text

We show statutory text only after checking it word for word against the official source. Read Section 3 of the B.N.S. 2023 on India Code.

Open India Code