New Delhi: In a significant judgment the Supreme Court has held that the right of private defence extends not only to “the defence of one’s own body against any offence affecting the human body but also to defend the body of any other person.”
The right also embraces the protection of property, whether one’s own or another person’s, against certain specified offences, namely, theft, robbery, mischief and criminal trespass, the court said.
A bench of Justices A.M. Sapre and R. Subash Reddy gave this ruling recently while acquitting a Forest Officer in Tamil Nadu who was awarded five years imprisonment for causing the death of sandalwood smuggler. The bench said a mere reasonable apprehension is enough to put the right of self defence into operation. In other words, it is not necessary that there should be an actual commission of the offence in order to give riseto the right of private defence.
