LAW FOR ALL

Dying Declaration - Statement recorded become and treated as Dying Declaration - Sanctity of the same - when it was not recorded word by word , when it was interpolated with new names - when the time was corrected - when the scribe admitted that it was recorded at dictation - Trial court rightly acquitted the accused - High court unnecessarily interfered with the acquittal - Apex court held that The sanctity is attached to a dying declaration because it comes from the mouth of a dying person. If the dying declaration is recorded not directly from the actual words of the maker but as dictated by somebody else, in our opinion, this by itself creates a lot of suspicion about credibility of such statement and the prosecution has to clear the same to the satisfaction of the court. The trial court on over-all consideration of the evidence of PW-25, PW-30 and PW-36 coupled with the fact that there was over-writing about the time at which the statement was recorded and also insertion of two names by different ink did not consider it safe to rely upon the dying declaration and acquitted the accused for want of any other evidence. In the circumstances, in our view, it cannot be said that the view taken by the trial court on the basis of evidence on record was not a possible view. The accused were entitled to the benefit of doubt which was rightly given to them by the trial court. = Muralidhar @ Gidda & Anr. … Appellants Versus State of Karnataka … Respondent= 2014 (April.Part) http://judis.nic.in/supremecourt/filename=41400