You can use unlimited force to defend yourself or your property under this right.

The right is expressly 'subject to the restrictions contained in section 37,' meaning there are limits on when and how much force can be used.

Private defence only protects your own body or property.

The law explicitly allows you to defend another person's body or another person's property too, not just your own.

This right applies to any wrongdoing against property.

It applies specifically to acts that amount to theft, robbery, mischief, or criminal trespass (or attempts at these), not every kind of property dispute.

Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023

Section 35

Right of private defence of body and of property

Every person has a right, subject to the restrictions contained in section 37, to defend—§

(a) his own body, and the body of any other person, against any offence affecting the human body;§

(b) the property, whether movable or immovable, of himself or of any other person, against any act which is an offence falling under the definition of theft, robbery, mischief or criminal trespass, or which is an attempt to commit theft, robbery, mischief or criminal trespass.§

Why this exists

This provision continues a principle long recognized in Indian criminal law (originally Section 97 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860) that the state cannot always be present to protect every citizen instantly, so the law permits individuals to act in self-preservation and to protect others and property from ongoing criminal harm. It reflects the idea that private defence is a safety valve when state protection is not immediately available, but it is deliberately kept narrow and conditional to prevent vigilante justice.

How courts read it

Under the predecessor provision (IPC Section 97), Indian courts consistently held that the right of private defence is preventive, not punitive — it exists to ward off an imminent danger, not to retaliate after the threat has ended. Courts such as the Supreme Court in cases like Darshan Singh v. State of Punjab (2010) clarified that this right is available even to a person who could have fled, and that the defender does not need to weigh their response with 'golden scales,' though the response must still stay within the restrictions found in what is now Section 37 (proportionality and absence of state help). These interpretive principles are expected to continue guiding how Section 35 of the BNS is applied.

Common misconceptions

Myth: You can use unlimited force to defend yourself or your property under this right.
Fact: The right is expressly 'subject to the restrictions contained in section 37,' meaning there are limits on when and how much force can be used.
Myth: Private defence only protects your own body or property.
Fact: The law explicitly allows you to defend another person's body or another person's property too, not just your own.
Myth: This right applies to any wrongdoing against property.
Fact: It applies specifically to acts that amount to theft, robbery, mischief, or criminal trespass (or attempts at these), not every kind of property dispute.