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Hindi Research Article
Private Defence: A Look at Definitional Aspects and Burden of Proof
Divyam Nandrajog*National Law University, Delhi, India
- *Corresponding Author:
- Divyam Nandrajog
National Law University
Delhi, India
Tel: 9711350679
E-mail: divyam.nandrajog11@nludelhi.ac.in
Received Date: May 01 2014; Accepted Date: May 21 2014; Published Date: May 24 2014
Citation: Nandrajog D (2014) Private Defence: A Look at Definitional Aspects and Burden of Proof. J Civil Legal Sci 3:122. doi:10.4172/2169-0170.1000122
Copyright: © 2014 Nandrajog D. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
This paper examines the contemporary definitional elements of “reasonable apprehension” and the role executed by the Supreme Court of India while exercising its criminal jurisdiction in matters concerning private defence of the body under the criminal laws of India. While looking at the totality of factors, this paper makes an assessment of the guidelines which courts have adopted in their pursuit of a fair trial, such as avoiding a microscopic scrutiny of the conduct of the accused and substituting its own hindsight for the foresight of the accused in the circumstances as they existed. One of the notable departures from its general conduct of proceedings is the heavy pro-accused tilt of the court, a feature writ large across the criminal justice system. This paper will examine how the judiciary changes the conventional adversarial model to carve out a greater space for itself in the trial. This paper also examines the burden of proof which rests on the accused. A concerning trend in private defence is the susceptibility of the right to misuse whereby a person may provoke another into a rash attack and use this attack to retaliate in turn, something for which the Indian Penal Code has not provided explicit safeguards. Subsequent to this analysis, the conclusion is presented along with the observations and suggestions of the author.
