The Penal Code is examined at every level: LL.B, the Bar Council enrolment examination and the judicial service examination. Read each offence as a list of ingredients. The prosecution must prove every ingredient, and most problem questions turn on whether one of them is missing.
Key sections — study pointers
Our notes on what to look for. They are not the text of the law.
| Section | Heading | Study note |
|---|---|---|
| 34 | Common intention | Several persons acting in furtherance of a shared intention are each liable as if each had done the whole act. Contrast s.149 (common object of an unlawful assembly). |
| 76–106 | General exceptions | Mistake of fact, accident, infancy, insanity, intoxication, consent, necessity and private defence. The accused bears the burden of proving an exception (Evidence Act s.105). |
| 96–106 | Right of private defence | Defence of body and property, its limits, and when it extends to causing death. A frequent problem-question topic. |
| 299–300 | Culpable homicide and murder | Learn the four clauses of s.300 against the three limbs of s.299, together with the five exceptions to s.300. |
| 378–382 | Theft | Dishonest intention, movable property, taken out of possession without consent, and moved to effect the taking. Compare extortion (s.383). |
| 390–391 | Robbery and dacoity | Robbery is theft or extortion with violence or fear of instant violence. Dacoity is robbery by five or more persons acting conjointly. |
| 415–420 | Cheating | Deception plus fraudulent or dishonest inducement. s.420 covers cheating that induces delivery of property. |