Trifles: De Minimis Non Curat Lex

In one line

Harm so slight that no ordinary person would complain of it is no offence.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 33 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita provides that nothing is an offence by reason that it causes, or that it is intended to cause, or that it is known to be likely to cause, any harm, if that harm is so slight that no person of ordinary sense and temper would complain of such harm; it is the statutory form of the maxim de minimis non curat lex, the law does not concern itself with trifles, and its test is objective, being the reaction of a person of ordinary sense and temper rather than of the complainant.

The section

The text. Nothing is an offence by reason that it causes, or that it is intended to cause, or that it is known to be likely to cause, any harm, if that harm is so slight that no person of ordinary sense and temper would complain of such harm.

The maxim. De minimis non curat lex, the law does not concern itself with trifles.

The three things to notice in the words

One: it covers intention and knowledge, not just result. The section applies where the harm is caused, or intended, or known to be likely. So a person who deliberately causes a trivial harm is protected as much as one who causes it by accident. That is unusual among the General Exceptions and it is deliberate: the section is about the magnitude of the harm and not about the state of mind.

Two: the standard is objective. A person of ordinary sense and temper. Not the complainant, who by definition did complain; and not the accused, who by definition thought it trivial. A complainant who is unusually sensitive gets no more protection than the section allows, and a complainant who is unusually thick-skinned gets no less.

Three: it is the harm that must be slight, not the act. A push that causes no injury is trivial; the same push that fractures a skull is not, and the section looks at what happened.

Why the exception exists

Because prosecuting trifles is worse than tolerating them. Every prosecution costs police time, court time and the accused's liberty and reputation. Where the harm is negligible the cost of the process exceeds the harm complained of.

Because the criminal law is drafted widely. Offences such as assault, criminal force, mischief, criminal trespass and hurt are defined so as to catch very small acts. Without this section a person who brushed past another in a crowd would be committing an offence of criminal force, and a person who plucked a leaf from a neighbour's hedge would be committing mischief.