• Wildlife Protection Act, Section 51 Killing of Leopard Conviction and sentence Challenged To decide, whether petitioners acted in their defence or not, nature and ferocity of animal will be relevant A tiger by nature is of dangerous ferocity as distinguished from mensurate nature like dog or a horse In case of attack by a dangerous animal victim cannot expected to weight and watch for attack There is duty cast on every person faced with apprehension of imminent danger of his person or property to seek aid of machinery provided by State but if immediately such aid is not available, he has right to private defence – Contention of the petitioners that they killed the Leopard but it was under private defense because the Leopard attacked one of the co-villagers found to be genuine – Trial Court had ignored the basic fact of the prosecution case that initially the petitioners along with other co-villagers were trying to oust the animal but when Leopard injured one person, they killed the dangerous animal – Judgment passed by Appellate Court and judgment passed by Trial Court quashed. [Paras 8 and 13]
Tumba vs State Of Jharkhand CRLR 804/04 29/09/22 [ DEEPAK JJ ]
[ JHARKHAND HIGH COURT ]