VidhiSangh

Indian Penal Code, 1860

Section 339: Wrongful restraint

Repealed. Repealed from 1 July 2024. Use it for offences committed before repeal and other liabilities, investigations or proceedings preserved by BNS section 358; do not use it as the current general penal code.

Chapter XVI — Of Offences Affecting the Human Body

339. Whoever voluntarily obstructs any person so as to prevent that person from proceeding in any direction in which that person has a right to proceed, is said wrongfully to restrain that person.

Exception.-The obstruction of a private way over land or water which a person in good faith believes himself to have a lawful right to obstruct, is not an offence within the meaning of this section.

Illustration A obstructs a path along which Z has a right to pass. A not believing in good faith that he has a right to stop the path. Z is thereby prevented from passing. A wrongfully restrains Z.

Source: official text of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.