When the right of private defence of property extends to causing death
AI Assist
Summary
Subject to the ordinary limits on private defence, you may use lethal force against a wrong-doer to protect property when they commit or try to commit certain serious offences. Those offences include robbery, house-breaking by night, setting fire to a dwelling or vessel used for living or storing goods, and theft, mischief or house-trespass that reasonably creates fear of death or grievous hurt. In such cases causing death or grievous harm can be justified as private defence of property.
Example
Ravi wakes at night to find a burglar breaking into his home and lunging at him with a knife. Because this is house-breaking by night and creates a real fear of death, if Ravi kills the intruder his actions can be justified as private defence of property, subject to the usual limits on self-defence.
Bare Act
Enacted textThe right of private defence of property extends, under the restrictions mentioned in section 99, to the voluntary causing of death or of any other harm to the wrong-doer, if the offence, the committing of which, or the attempting to commit which, occasions the exercise of the right, be an offence of any of the descriptions hereinafter enumerated, namely:
(1) Robbery;
(2) House-breaking by night;
(3) Mischief by fire committed on any building, tent or vessel, which building, tent or vessel is used as a human dwelling, or as a place for the custody of property;
(4) Theft, mischief, or house-trespass, under such circumstances as may reasonably cause apprehension that death or grievous hurt will be the consequence, if such right of private defence is not exercised.
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