Law: Pakistan Penal Code (PPC),1860

Section: 102 to 100

Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 (XLV of 1860)-- ----Ss. 102 to 100--Right of self-defence--Qatl-e-amd--Apprehension of death--Medical evidence--The right of private defence, codified in Sections 102 and 100 of Pakistan Penal Code, is neither ornamental nor theoretical; it is a substantive protection grounded in reason, necessity, and instinct of survival--The legislature, fully cognizant of realities of sudden violence, has framed these provisions to ensure that law does not demand measured deliberation in moments of mortal peril--Section 102, by its express language, recognizes that right of private defence is dynamic, it springs into existence when reasonable apprehension of danger arises and subsists uninterrupted so long as that apprehension endures--The law does not insist that threatened person must pause to weigh alternatives, nor does it require him to retreat or disengage where danger remains imminent and overpowering--Section 100, PPC completes this statutory scheme by defining lawful extent of such defence--Where assault reasonably occasions, an apprehension of death or grievous hurt, law confers right to cause death in defence of one’s person--This authority is not conferred lightly; it is conditioned upon necessity, proportionality, and continuity of threat--Read conjointly, Sections 102 and 100 form a coherent legal framework that balances sanctity of human life with equally compelling right to preserve one’s own life when confronted with unlawful and lethal aggression--Applying these settled principles to facts at hand, narrative that emerges is singular and consistent--The deceased was not a passive victim of circumstance; he was initiator of violence--Armed with a fire-arm, he discharged it and caused injury to appellant, thereby setting in motion a chain of events characterized by immediate danger and sustained hostility--What followed was not an isolated act but a continuous struggle, a physical contest over a deadly weapon, where margin between life and death was perilously thin--The medical evidence, often regarded as most impartial witness, speaks eloquently in this regard--To deny him protection of Sections 102 and 100, PPC would be…