Legal provisions regarding Voluntarily Causing Hurt under section 321 of Indian Penal Code, 1860.
Voluntarily Causing Hurt:
According to Section 321 of the Indian Penal Code, Whoever does any act with the intention of thereby causing hurt to any person, or with the knowledge that he is likely thereby to cause hurt to any person, and does thereby cause hurt to any person, is said “voluntarily to cause hurt”.
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The most essential component of Section 321 is ‘intention’ to cause hurt, or the ‘knowledge’ that the act is likely to cause hurt. If ‘intention’ or ‘knowledge’ is absent, then it will not amount to voluntarily causing hurt.
The definition of the offence of ‘voluntary hurt’ given in Section 321 is but an echo of the definition of culpable homicide as given in Section 299. The words used in both the Sections are similar, but the effect intended, or known in each case, of course, necessarily differs.
As in the case of culpable homicide, so in the case of hurt, Section 321 requires proof of: (i) the doing of any act; (ii) that act being done: (a) with the intention of causing hurt to a specified person or (b) with the knowledge that is thereby likely to cause such hurt, and lastly, (iii) the act so done and intended does cause hurt.