vol_4_4_chapter_4_part_III

CILS HARMONISED SHARIA PENAL CODE ANNOTATED
75. (1) No act is an offence by reason of the injury it has caused to the person or property of
any person who, being above the age of taklif, has voluntarily and with understanding
given his consent express or implied to that act. 102
(2) This section shall not apply to acts which are likely to cause death or grievous hurt,
nor to acts which constitute offences independently of any injury which they are capable
of causing to the person who has given his consent or to his property.
76. Nothing, which is not intended to cause death, is an offence by reason of any harm
which it may cause, or be intended by the doer to cause, or be known by the doer to be likely
to cause, to any person for whose benefit it is done in good faith, and who has given a
consent, whether express or implied, to suffer that harm, or to take the risk of that harm.
77. (1) Nothing is an offence which does not amount to the infliction of grievous hurt upon
any person and which is done:
(a) by a parent or guardian for the purpose of correcting his child or ward; 103 or
(b) by a school master for the purpose of correcting a child entrusted to his
charge; 104 or
(c) by a master for the purpose of correcting his apprentice such apprentice being
under eighteen years of age; 105 or
(d) by a husband for the purpose of correcting his wife. 106
(2) No correction is justifiable which is unreasonable in kind or in degree, regard being
had to the age and physical and mental condition of the person on whom it is inflicted;
and no correction is justifiable in the case of a person who, by reason of tender years or
otherwise, is incapable of understanding the purpose for which it is inflicted.
78. No communication made in good faith is an offence by reason of any harm caused to
the person to whom it is made, if it is made for the benefit of that person. 107
79. Except homicide, grievous hurt and offences against the State punishable with death, no
act is an offence which is done by a person who is compelled to do it by coercion or by
threat of death or imminent grievous hurt to his person or family or serious injury to his
property which at the time of doing it reasonably caused the apprehension that instant death
to that person will otherwise be the consequence:
Provided that the person doing the act did not, of his own accord or from apprehension of
harm to himself short of instant death, place himself in the situation by which he became
subject to such compulsion.
102 PC: “above the age of eighteen years”.
103 PC and Gombe, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Yobe, Zamfara: “child or ward being under eighteen
years of age”. Bauchi: “under the age of maturity”.
104 PC, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe, Zamfara: “child under eighteen years of
age”. Bauchi: “under the age of maturity”.
105 PC and all states except Kaduna: “servant or apprentice”.
106 PC goes on: “such husband and wife being subject to any native law or custom in which such
correction is recognised as lawful.”
107 PC adds this illustration: “A, a surgeon, in good faith communicates to a patient his opinion that he
cannot live. The patient dies in consequence of the shock. A has committed no offence, though he
knew it to be likely that the communication might cause the patient’s death.”
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