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Section history

Section 38 — Several persons engaged in the commission of a criminal act may be guilty of different offences

As in force on 21 November 2010.

Timeline 5 versions
  1. 30 March 1987 Enacted
  2. 1 February 2008 Act 51 of 2007
  3. 30 November 2008 Revised edition
  4. 21 November 2010 You are here
  5. 31 December 2021 Revised edition
  6. 17 August 2026 Latest
38.Several persons engaged in the commission of a criminal act may be guilty of different offences

Where several persons are engaged or concerned in the commission of a criminal act, they may be guilty of different offences by means of that act.

Illustration

A attacks Z under such circumstances of grave provocation that his killing of Z would be only culpable homicide not amounting to murder. B, having ill-will towards Z, and intending to kill him, and not having been subject to the provocation, assists A in killing Z. Here, though A and B are both engaged in causing Z’s death, B is guilty of murder, and A is guilty only of culpable homicide.

[Indian PC 1860, s. 38]