Section 100 - When the right of private defence of the body extends to causing death.
Section 100 IPC provides for the conditions and extends the scope of the right of private defence.
Sec 100 IPC is defined under the Code as, “The right of private defence of the body extends, under the restrictions mentioned in the last preceding section, to the voluntary causing of death or of any other harm to the assailant, if the offence which occasions the exercise of the rights is of any of the descriptions hereinafter enumerated, namely:-
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First- Such an assault as may reasonably cause the apprehension that death will otherwise be the consequence of such assault;
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Secondly- Such an assault as may reasonably cause the apprehension that grievous hurt will otherwise be the consequence of such assault
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Thirdly- An assault with the intention of committing rape;
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Fourthly- An assault with the intention of gratifying unnatural lust;
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Fifthly- An assault with the intention of Kidnapping or abducting;
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Sixthly- An assault with the intention of wrongfully confining a person, under circumstances which may reasonably cause him to apprehend that he will be unable to have recourse to the public authorities for his release.
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Seventhly- An act of throwing or administering acid or an attempt to throw or administer acid which may reasonably cause the apprehension that grievous hurt will otherwise be the consequence of such act.
Sec. 100 Indian Penal Code justifies the killing of a person (assailant) who kills another under the restrictions mentioned in section 99 of the IPC. Section 99 lays down the conditions as well as the limits within which the right to private defence can be exercised. Right to private defense is more of a defensive right to a man and not an offensive right.
Say for an instance, if person A attacks person B with any of the seven conditions mentioned in section 100, and person B commits an act in order to protect himself/ self-defense of the body that leads to grievous hurt or death of person B, he is said to commit such an act in lieu of protection of himself.
To invoke the provisions of sec. 100 Indian Penal Code, these four conditions must always exist:
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The person exercising the right of private defence must be free from fault in bringing about the encounter;
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There must be present an impending peril (threat) to life or of great bodily harm, either real or so which creates an honest belief of exceeding great necessity of doing such an act.
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There must be no other safe or reasonable mode of escape by the person aggrieved.
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There must have been an act of taking away the life of the person.
As observed by the courts in a number of cases, ‘there is nothing more degrading to the human spirit than to return away in the face of threat’.
In the case of State of Orissa v. Ghenu, the Supreme Court acquitted the accused person on the ground that accused had caused the death of his brother while exercising his own right of private defence.
However, in the case of Vishwanath v. State of Uttar Pradesh, it was held by the Supreme Court that the right of private defence as defined under clause 5 of IPC 100 arises against any assault made for the purpose of abduction. The defender does not have to consider whether the intention of the defender was or was not to commit an offence under one or another type of kidnapping or abduction as provided under section 364 to section 369 of the IPC.
The right of private defence of the body is one of the exceptions provided to a person. If there is an act which causes a threat to his life, or his life is on danger and the only situation or the measure that could be adopted by him to save his own life is by causing harm to another person, he is allowed to do that. Right to private defence can also be related to Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. Article 21 provides for the ‘Right to life and personal liberty’. If a person is left with no other way to self-help, he can use force and IPC Section 100 also extends the scope of private defence by extending it to causing the death of the person attacking.
