BNS Section 36

Section 36 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, deals with the right of private defense against acts of individuals who may not be fully responsible for their actions due to factors like youth, lack of maturity, mental illness, intoxication, or misconception.

IPC Section 98

When an act, which would otherwise be a certain offence, is not that offence, by reason of the youth, the want of maturity of understanding, the mental illness or the intoxication of the person doing that act, or by reason of any misconception on the part of that person, every person has the same right of private defence against that act which he would have if the act were that offence.

Illustrations
(a) Z, under the influence of mental illness, attempts to kill A; Z is guilty of no offence. But A has the same right of private defence which he would have if Z were sane.
(b) A enters by night a house which he is legally entitled to enter. Z, in good faith, taking A for a house-breaker, attacks A. Here Z, by attacking A under this misconception, commits no offence. But A has the same right of private defence against Z, which he would have if Z were not acting under that misconception.

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