Section 102 BNS: Culpable Homicide by Causing Death of an Unintended Person

Section 102 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 deals with a situation where a person intends, or knows an act is likely, to cause the death of one person but the act instead causes the death of another person.

In simple terms: the fact that a different person dies does not reduce the nature of the culpable homicide. The offence is classified as it would have been if the person whom the offender intended, or knew to be likely, to kill had actually died.

Text of Section 102 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023

102. Culpable homicide by causing death of person other than person whose death was intended.

If a person, by doing anything which he intends or knows to be likely to cause death, commits culpable homicide by causing the death of any person, whose death he neither intends nor knows himself to be likely to cause, the culpable homicide committed by the offender is of the description of which it would have been if he had caused the death of the person whose death he intended or knew himself to be likely to cause.

Meaning and legal effect of Section 102 BNS

Section 102 addresses the legal consequence of a fatal act where the victim who actually dies is not the person whose death was intended or known by the offender to be likely. The section directs the court to classify the resulting culpable homicide according to the character the offence would have had if the intended or contemplated person had died.

The provision therefore focuses on the offender's intention or knowledge attached to the act, rather than allowing liability to disappear merely because the fatal consequence fell upon another person.

Essential ingredients of Section 102

The accused does an act with the intention of causing death, or with knowledge that the act is likely to cause death.
The act actually causes the death of a person.
The person who dies is not the person whose death the accused intended to cause.
The accused also did not know himself to be likely to cause the death of the person who actually died.
The resulting culpable homicide is treated as being of the same description as if the intended or contemplated victim had died.

Relationship with Sections 100, 101, 103 and 105 BNS

Section 102 does not operate in isolation. It must be read with the surrounding provisions governing offences affecting life. Section 100 defines culpable homicide, while Section 101 identifies when culpable homicide amounts to murder, subject to its statutory exceptions.

If the facts, applied as directed by Section 102, make the offence murder, punishment is governed by Section 103. If the offence is culpable homicide not amounting to murder, punishment is governed by Section 105.

Provision	Subject	Relevance to Section 102
Section 100	Culpable homicide	Provides the basic definition of culpable homicide.
Section 101	Murder	Determines when culpable homicide is murder and sets out exceptions.
Section 102	Death of a person other than the intended person	Preserves the description of the offence despite the unintended victim.
Section 103	Punishment for murder	Applies where the offence is classified as murder.
Section 105	Punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder	Applies where the offence falls short of murder.

Illustrative example

Suppose A performs a fatal act intending to kill B, but the act instead causes the death of C, whose death A neither intended nor knew himself to be likely to cause. Section 102 requires the culpable homicide to be classified as it would have been if B had died from that act. The final classification therefore depends on the intention, knowledge and other circumstances relevant under Sections 100 and 101.

Does Section 102 itself prescribe punishment?

No. Section 102 determines the description or legal character of the culpable homicide in the specified situation. The applicable punishment follows from the provision governing the offence as ultimately classified, including Section 103 for murder or Section 105 for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

Commencement and current applicability

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 is Act No. 45 of 2023. Section 102 is part of Chapter VI dealing with offences affecting the human body and has been in force from July 1, 2024. The commencement notification excluded only Section 106(2) from that commencement date; that exception does not apply to Section 102.

Legal note: The application of Section 102 depends on the proved facts of each case, including the accused's intention or knowledge and the circumstances in which death was caused. The statutory language should be read together with the other provisions of the BNS applicable to the alleged offence.