Section 284: Defence of provocation

A person is not criminally responsible for an assault committed upon a person who
gives him provocation for the assault, if he is in fact deprived by the provocation of the
power of self‐control, and acts upon it on the sudden and before there is time for his
passion to cool; provided that the force used is not disproportionate to the
provocation, and is not intended, and is not such as is likely, to cause death or
grievous harm.
Whether any particular act or insult is such as to be likely to deprive an ordinary
person of the power of self‐control and to induce him to assault the person by whom
the act or insult is done or offered, and whether, in any particular case, the person
provoked was actually deprived by the provocation of the power of self‐control, and
whether any force used is or is not disproportionate to the provocation, are questions
of fact.