Dying declaration: India
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Dying declaration
Publication: Times Of India Delhi; Date: Mar 14, 2009; Section: Times Nation; Page: 11
SC: Deathbed declaration has its own sanctity
New Delhi: The dying declaration of a person should normally be relied upon by courts as rarely does a person on his deathbed speaks falsehood, the Supreme Court has held.
“The situation in which a person is on the deathbed is so solemn and serene, when he is dying that the grave position in which he is placed, is the reason in law to accept the veracity of his statement.
“It is for this reason that the requirement of oath and crossexamination are dispensed with. Besides, should the dying declaration be excluded, it will result in the miscarriage of justice because the victim being generally the only eyewitness in a serious crime, the exclusion of the statement would leave the court without a scrap of evidence,” the apex court observed.
However, the court has to be on guard that the statement of the deceased was not as a result of either tutoring, or prompting or a product of imagination, a Bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and Asok Kumar Ganguly of the apex court said.
The Bench passed the observation while dismissing an appeal filed by Satish Ambanna Bansode who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for killing his wife Satyawwa by setting her ablaze on October 5, 1999 in Mahrashtra’s Sangli district. PTI
Dictated dying declaration doubtful: SC
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday observed that the credibility of a dying declaration comes under “suspicion” if the statement is not in the “actual words” of the victim and has been dictated by somebody else.
“If the dying declaration is recorded not directly from the actual words of the maker but as dictated by somebody else... this creates a lot of suspicion about credibility of such a statement,” a bench comprising Justice R M Lodha and Justice Shiva Kirti Singh said. The SC set aside a Karnataka HC verdict convicting three people in a 2002 murder case. AGENCIES
What are included in dying declarations?
Not just words, gestures also valid: SC
The Supreme Court upheld and relied heavily on three sets of Nirbhaya's dying declarations, including the one made mostly through gestures, nods and jottings as she was not in a position to speak or write properly , to confirm the death sentences of the four convicts.
A bench of Justices Dipak Misra, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan said a dying declaration should not necessarily be made by words or in writing and it could be through gestures. It refused to give credence to the submission made by the convicts that the dying declarations not be relied on.
Three dying declarations were recorded. The first by a doctor when she was admitted to hospital on December 16, 2012, and the second on December 21 by the SDM in which she gave exact details.
The third was recorded by a metropolitan magistrate on December 25, mostly through gestures. Challenging the validity of her dying declara tions, the convicts contended there were discrepancies in her statements and the third account through gestures was not videographed. The court rejected the plea.
“The contention that the third dying declaration made through gestures lacks credibility and that the same ought to have been videographed, in our view, is totally sans substance. The dying declaration recorded on the basis of nods and gestures is not only admissible but also possesses evidentiary value, the extent of which shall depend upon who recorded the statement,“ the bench said.
“In the present case, this caution was aptly taken, as the person who recorded her dying declaration was the metropolitan magistrate and he was satisfied himself as regards the mental alertness and fitness of the prosecutrix, and recorded her dying declaration by noticing her gestures and her own writings,“ the bench said.
The court held that all three dying declarations were voluntary , consistent and trustworthy , satisfying the test of reliability. It said the dying declarations are well corroborated by medical and scientific evidence and supported by the testimony of her male friend who was with her on that night.
“In the case of rape and sexual assault, the evidence of prosecutrix is very crucial and if it inspires confidence of the court, there is no requirement of law to insist upon corroboration of the same for convicting the accused.Courts are expected to act with sensitivity and appreciate the evidence of the prosecutrix in the background of the entire facts of the case and not in isolation,“ the court said.
“Courts should not attach undue importance to discrepancies where the contradictions sought to be brought up from the evidence of the prosecutrix are immaterial and of no consequence. Minor variations in the testimony of the witnesses are often the hallmark of truth of the testimony . Trivial discrepancies ought not to obliterate an otherwise acceptable evidence,“ it said.
“In our view, all the three dying declarations are consistent with each other and well corroborated with other evidence and the trial court as well as the high court correctly placed reliance upon the dying declarations of the prosecutrix to record the conviction,“ it said.
Women tend to falsely implicate in-laws: SC
From the archives of The Times of India 2007, 2009
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has held that a dying declaration should be scrutinized as minutely as possible since there is a tendency particularly among wives to implicate their in-laws in false cases of murder or attempt to murder.
The Apex Court said courts should scrutinize such declaration with a “miscroscopic eye” to find out the truthfulness as the victims at times are bound to be influenced by relatives to implicate innocent persons.
“The court has to examine a dying declaration scrupulously with a micrscopic eye to find out whether the dying declaration is voluntary, truthful, made in a conscious state of mind without being influenced by the relatives present or by the investigating agency who may be interested in the success of investigation or which may be negligent while recording the dying declaration.
“A number of times, a young girl or a wife, who makes the dying declaration, could be under the impression that she would lead a peaceful,congenial, happy and blissful married life only with her husband and therefore, has a tendency to implicate the inconvenient parents-in-law or other relatives,” a bench of Justices V S Sirpurkar and Mukundakam Sharma said in a judgement.
At the same time, the SC said a dying declaration cannot be rejected merely because there were certain factual errors. PTI
