Court convicts man, says he exceeded ‘right of private defence’

New Delhi: Convicting a man of attempting to commit culpable homicide, a Delhi court has observed that while people are well within their right to defend their body and property and can legally resist force, the ‘right of private defence' does not entitle them to inflict more harm than necessary.The court of additional sessions judge Sunil Gupta was hearing the case against one Furkan, against whom Mehrauli police station had registered a case under IPC sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) for causing injuries to the victim, Sagar Negi, with a foldable knife in Nov 2023. Negi was left with grievous injury, the court noted. In an order dated Aug 28, the court said although Furkan attacked Negi only after being slapped unjustifiably, he couldn't be allowed to go scot-free because he had exceeded his ‘right of private defence'. "…the injured was attacked with a knife on vital parts of his body by the accused… he is liable to be convicted for the offence under IPC Section 308 as all the ingredients thereof are satisfied in this case," the court said. The accused was, however, acquitted of the offence of attempt to murder under IPC Section 307.The court, after going through CCTV footage, said there was no possibility of Furkan having abused Negi to the extent that he rushed from the second floor and started slapping and beating the accused with a belt. In such an eventuality, he was not expected to retreat because the law does not require its citizens to behave like cowards when confronted with imminent unlawful aggression, said the court. "The means used by the accused to save himself were much more than required in the given circumstances, meaning thereby he has clearly exceeded his right of private defence," the court noted.