Indian Penal Code, 1860
6.
Definitions in the Code to be understood subject to exceptions
Throughout this Code
every definition of an offence, every penal provision, and every illustration
of every such definition or penal provision, shall be understood subject to the
exceptions contained in the Chapter entitled "General Exceptions",
though these exceptions are not repeated in such definition, penal provision,
or illustration.
Illustrations
(a) The sections, in
this Code, which contain definitions of offences, do not express that a child
under seven years of age cannot commit such offences, but the definitions are
to be understood subject to the general exception which provides that nothing
shall be an offence which is done by a child under seven years of age.
(b) A, a
police-officer, without warrant, apprehends Z, who has committed murder. Here A
is not guilty of the offence of wrongful confinement for he was bound by law to
apprehend Z and therefore the case falls within the general exception which
provides that "nothing is an offence which is done by a person who is
bound by law to do it".