In a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court on Thursday expanded the boundaries of the right to self-defence. According to a report by Times of India, the Supreme Court has ruled that a person will be right in taking the law into his hands if he witnesses his parents or relatives are being assaulted.
What did Right to Self-Defence mean earlier? A person can kill one under the right of self-defence only on reasonable apprehensions of threats to his own life from the offender.
The ruling came in the light of a case of two persons convicted by the trial court for assaulting some neighbours in their village. The judgement was upheld by the Rajasthan High Court and sentenced them to two years of rigorous imprisonment.
However, the SC bench dealing with the issue failed to determine why the two had resorted to assault and why there were so many injury marks on their bodies.
The Logical Take Though the decision of taking law in lands can lead to dangerous outcomes, we have to wait and see how it evolves, and the Supreme Court has to elucidate very clearly on what grounds a person can take law in hands and what will be the limits.
