BNS Section 32

Section 32 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, provides a legal exception for acts committed under threat of immediate death. 

IPC Section 94

Except murder, and offences against the State punishable with death, nothing is an offence which is done by a person who is compelled to do it by threats, which, at the time of doing it, reasonably cause the apprehension that instant death to that person will otherwise be the consequence:
Provided the person doing the act did not of his own accord, or from a reasonable apprehension of harm to himself short of instant death, place himself in the situation by which he became subject to such constraint.

Explanation 1: A person who, of his own accord, or by reason of a threat of being beaten, joins a gang of dacoits, knowing their character, is not entitled to the benefit of this exception on the ground of his having been compelled by his associates to do anything that is an offence by law.

Explanation 2: A person seized by a gang of dacoits, and forced, by threat of instant death, to do a thing which is an offence by law; for example, a smith compelled to take his tools and to force the door of a house for the dacoits to enter and plunder it, is entitled to the benefit of this exception.

Example: Vijay, a carpenter, is forced to use his tools to break open a house under threat of being killed by dacoits. Here, Vijay has committed no offence since he was forced to do an illegal activity under threat of instant death. 

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