Indian Penal Code, 1860 · Chapter II: General Explanations
Section 43: “Illegal”
The Indian Penal Code, 1860 was repealed and replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 from 1 July 2024. It still applies to offences and proceedings from before that date.
The word “illegal” is applicable to everything which is an offence or which is prohibited by law, or which furnishes ground for a civil action; and a person is said to be “legally bound to do” whatever it is illegal in him to omit.
Corresponding sections were matched by comparing the wording of both official texts, and for the IPC and BNS, also against a published correspondence table. Wording, punishments and structure often changed, so read both sections before relying on the match.
Source: India Code (Legislative Department), the text of the Act as it stood before its repeal. Words in square brackets [ ] were inserted or substituted by later amending Acts, and *** marks words omitted by an amendment. The amendment footnotes are not reproduced here.
Supreme Court judgments citing the section 43
- Mukesh & Anr. v. State for NCT of Delhi & Ors.
- Common Cause (A Regd. Society) v. Union of India
- Yakub Abdul Razak Memon v. The State of Maharashtra, Through Cbi, Bombay
- Inderjit Singh Grewal v. State of Punjab & Anr.
- Mohd. Arif @ Ashfaq v. State of NCT of Delhi
- Mir Nagvi Askari v. C. B. I.
- R. Venkatakrishnan v. Central Bureau of Investigation
- Sudhir Shantilal Mehta v. C.B.I.
- State. NCT of Delhi v. Malvinder Singh
- Manzar Sayeed Khan v. State of Maharashtra and Anr.