De minimis non curat lex

De minimis non curat lex means that the law does not concern itself with trifles. Courts do not spend their time on matters too small to deserve legal attention, and conduct that is technically within a rule may be excused if the harm is negligible.

In Indian criminal law the maxim has a statutory home in Section 33 of the BNS, earlier Section 95 of the IPC. It provides that nothing is an offence by reason that it causes, or is intended to cause, or is known to be likely to cause, any harm, if that harm is so slight that no person of ordinary sense and temper would complain of such harm. The section is one of the general exceptions in Chapter III, so it applies to every offence in the Sanhita.

The test is objective. It does not ask whether the particular victim complained, or whether the accused thought the harm trivial, but whether a person of ordinary sense and temper would complain. The section covers harm actually caused as well as harm intended or known to be likely. Whether harm is slight depends on its nature and the circumstances, including the relation between the parties and the setting. The exception does not apply where the harm, however small in money terms, is of a kind an ordinary person would resent, so the value of the property alone does not decide it. As with other general exceptions, the burden of proving the circumstances lies on the accused under Section 108 of the BSA.

The maxim also operates outside criminal law, for example where a court refuses relief for a breach of no practical consequence. Examiners test the wording of Section 33, the objective standard of a person of ordinary sense and temper, and the conclusion that the law disregards trifling matters.