Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023
Section 100 BNS: Culpable Homicide
Section 100 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 defines culpable homicide. It covers causing death by an act done with the intention of causing death, with the intention of causing bodily injury likely to cause death, or with knowledge that the act is likely to cause death.
Text of Section 100 BNS
100. Culpable homicide. Whoever causes death by doing an act with the intention of causing death, or with the intention of causing such bodily injury as is likely to cause death, or with the knowledge that he is likely by such act to cause death, commits the offence of culpable homicide.
Essential Ingredients of Culpable Homicide
- There must be a death caused by an act.
- The act must be accompanied by one of the mental elements stated in Section 100.
- The first mental element is intention to cause death.
- The second is intention to cause bodily injury that is likely to cause death.
- The third is knowledge that the act is likely to cause death.
- A causal connection between the act and the death must be established.
Three Mental Elements Under Section 100
| Category | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Intention to cause death | The act is done with the direct intention of causing death. |
| Intention to cause bodily injury likely to cause death | The act is intended to cause bodily injury of a kind likely to result in death. |
| Knowledge of likelihood of death | The person knows that the act is likely to cause death, even if death itself is not the direct object. |
Statutory Illustrations
Illustration (a). A lays sticks and turf over a pit, with the intention of thereby causing death, or with the knowledge that death is likely to be thereby caused. Z, believing the ground to be firm, treads on it, falls in and is killed. A has committed the offence of culpable homicide.
Illustration (b). A knows Z to be behind a bush. B does not know it. A, intending to cause, or knowing it to be likely to cause Z's death, induces B to fire at the bush. B fires and kills Z. Here B may be guilty of no offence; but A has committed the offence of culpable homicide.
Illustration (c). A, by shooting at a fowl with intent to kill and steal it, kills B, who is behind a bush; A not knowing that he was there. Here, although A was doing an unlawful act, he was not guilty of culpable homicide, as he did not intend to kill B, or to cause death by doing an act that he knew was likely to cause death.
Explanation 1: Accelerating Death
If a person causes bodily injury to another who is already suffering from a disorder, disease, or bodily infirmity, and that injury accelerates the person's death, Section 100 treats the person causing the injury as having caused the death.
Explanation 2: Medical Treatment Does Not Break Causation
Where death is caused by bodily injury, the person who caused the injury is deemed to have caused the death even though proper remedies and skilful treatment might have prevented the death. The possibility that better treatment could have saved the victim does not, by itself, remove the statutory causal responsibility described in the Explanation.
Explanation 3: Child in the Womb and Live Birth
The causing of the death of a child in the mother's womb is not homicide under this Explanation. However, causing the death of a living child may amount to culpable homicide if any part of that child has been brought forth, even if the child has not breathed or has not been completely born.
Culpable Homicide and Murder Under the BNS
Section 100 supplies the basic definition of culpable homicide. Whether a culpable homicide amounts to murder requires examination of the later BNS provision defining murder and its statutory exceptions. The legal classification therefore depends on the precise intention, knowledge, nature of injury, circumstances, and applicable exceptions proved in the case.
Related BNS Provisions
Section 100 begins the BNS group of provisions concerning offences affecting life. It is also linked to Section 92 BNS, which expressly uses the concept of culpable homicide in relation to a quick unborn child. Other homicide provisions following Section 100 address murder, punishment, and related forms of causing death.
Official Legal References
This page provides general legal information based on the statutory text. Whether a particular death amounts to culpable homicide, murder, or another offence depends on the facts, evidence, applicable exceptions, procedural law, and judicial interpretation.