What the General Exceptions Are

In one line

The General Exceptions are the circumstances in which conduct that would otherwise be an offence is not an offence at all.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: Chapter III of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, sections 14 to 44, contains the General Exceptions, being the circumstances in which an act that answers the definition of an offence is nevertheless not an offence, and by section 3(1) every definition of an offence, every penal provision and every illustration in the Sanhita is to be understood subject to them although they are not repeated in the definition; the first twenty of them, sections 14 to 33, are the exceptions properly so called, and the last eleven, sections 34 to 44, are the right of private defence.

MU's question, and how to answer it

The question is almost always in the form "Enumerate General Exceptions. Discuss in detail any three of them." That form rewards a particular structure.

Enumerate all of them. Not a selection. The mark for enumeration is for completeness, and giving fourteen of twenty loses it.

Group them. A list of twenty sections in numerical order is harder to read and harder to write than four groups of four or five, and the grouping shows understanding.

Then discuss the three. Give the section, its exact words, its conditions as a numbered list, a case if there is one, and a worked illustration.

And say how the Chapter operates, because that is the part nobody writes and it is a mark of its own.

The enumeration

Sections 14 to 17: acts done under legal authority, or under a mistake about it.

14, an act done by a person bound by law, or who by reason of a mistake of fact and not of law in good faith believes himself bound. 15, an act of a Judge acting judicially in the exercise of a power which is, or which in good faith he believes to be, given to him by law. 16, an act done in pursuance of, or warranted by, the judgment or order of a court while it remains in force, even where the court had no jurisdiction, provided the person in good faith believes it had. 17, an act done by a person justified by law, or who by mistake of fact in good faith believes himself justified.

Sections 18 and 19: acts where the harm was not chosen.

18, accident in doing a lawful act. 19, an act likely to cause harm but done without criminal intent and to prevent other harm, which is necessity.

Sections 20 to 24: incapacity.

20, an act of a child under seven. 21, an act of a child above seven and under twelve of immature understanding. 22, an act of a person of unsound mind. 23, an act of a person incapable of judgment by reason of intoxication caused against his will. 24, an offence requiring a particular intent or knowledge committed by a person who is intoxicated.