Section 283: Provocation

The term "provocation", used with reference to an offence of which an assault is an
element, includes, except as hereinafter stated, any wrongful act or insult of such
nature as to be likely, when done to an ordinary person, or in the presence of the
ordinary person to another person who is under his immediate care, or to whom he
stands in a conjugal, parental, filial, or fraternal relation, or in the relation of master or
servant, to deprive him of the power of self‐control, and to induce him to assault the
person by whom the act or insult is done or offered.
When such an act or insult is done or offered by one person to another, or in the
presence of another to a person who is under the immediate care of that other, or to
whom the latter stands in any such relation as aforesaid, the former is said to give to
the latter provocation for an assault.
A lawful act is not provocation to any person for an assault.
An act which a person does in consequence of excitement given by another person in
order to induce him to do the act, and thereby to furnish an excuse for committing an
assault, is not provocation to that person for an assault.
An arrest which is unlawful is not necessarily provocation for an assault, but it may be
evidence of provocation to a person who knows of the illegality.