007… License to Kill?

Continued from my earlier blog https://cvshreejeev.wixsite.com/website/post/guns-laws

007 - License to Kill, famously pronounced as “Double Ow Seven – License to Kill” is the “Tag line” of the popular spy thriller series of James Bond movies. In this series, the protagonist James Bond is an undercover agent of MI6 – The powerful British Secret Service, and as part of his mission, he may receive legal immunity from prosecution in Briton, if, in his opinion, it becomes imperative to eliminate someone from the angle of national security. Of course, this is a literary portrayal of a fictional British Secret Service agent, born out of the literary genius of writer Ian Fleming.

However, this unbridled power of “The License to Kill”, though fictional, caught the collective imagination of the entire world. Though the fact remains that it is just a tagline of a spy thriller movie series.

What comes out of this phenomenon is that the power to kill someone or eliminate one’s enemies, without having to be answerable to any authority, is the secret desire of many people. But how far is it feasible? No entity, whether individual, department, authority, judiciary, or country has blanket permission to kill a fellow human being, whatever the circumstance is.

However, under very few scenarios, there is leeway to this rule. Some of them are as follows :

1. In a war with another country or a war-like situation

2. Under the right to self-defense

3. Capital Punishment by the Judiciary

4. Mercy killing

5. MTP – (Medical Termination of Pregnancy)

In a war:

When war is declared between two countries, the armed forces devise strategies and pass orders down the line, where human causalities of the enemy soldiers is a yardstick of one’s achievements. It also happens in the course of protecting the territory of our motherland, by enemy aggressors.

Right to Self-Defense

This applies to both the ordinary citizen, as well as the Policemen. The so-called Encounter Specialists of the Police force take umbrage under this right to shield themselves from legal prosecution. I will explain this at length in another blog dedicated to “Encounter Specialists”.

Capital Punishment

Capital punishment (death by hanging) by the Judiciary is awarded only in the rarest of rare cases. It is after years of deliberations, arguments, and counter-arguments that the Court decides that the offense falls under the rarest of rare cases and awards capital punishment. Here also, the accused has the liberty to approach the higher Court till it reaches the Supreme Court. Even after the Supreme Court upholds the judgment, the accused can still approach the President of India with a mercy petition, which may or may not be accepted by the President as it is his discretionary power. Many countries have done away with Capital punishments, terming it as barbaric. However, it is still very much valid in India, the argument being that the accused is beyond reforms and apart from being a punishment meted out to the accused, it would also serve the purpose of ensuring justice to the victim or the victim’s family and it will also serve as a deterrent to potential criminals.

Mercy Killing :

Euthanasia or Mercy Killing is the intentional ending of the life of a person who is suffering from a terminal, painful illness. Since March 2018, passive euthanasia is legal in India under strict guidelines. Patients must consent through a living will, and must be either terminally ill or in a vegetative state.

Medical Termination of Pregnancy:

MTP Act or Medical Termination of Pregnancy which is more widely known as “Abortion” is the killing of the living human fetus and not a living human being. It is the right of an individual to terminate her pregnancy. A recent amendment to the MTP Act in March 2021 has extended the gestation period for safe abortion to 24 months, only for vulnerable categories of women which includes survivors of rape and incest, single women (unmarried/divorced/widowed), and women with disabilities. The amendment would also result in making abortion available at any time during the pregnancy if the fetus is diagnosed with severe fetal abnormalities.

My next blog would be on “Encounter Specialists”.