Summary
The appellant was convicted for murder on the basis inter alia of the dying declaration of the deceased. The Sessions Court rejected it on the ground that though the deceased gave the narrative of events in Punjabi the statement was taken down in Urdu.
Held, that in view of the fact that in the Punjab the lan- guage used in the subordinate courts and by the Police for recording statements has always been Urdu, the recording of dying declarations in Urdu cannot be a ground for saying that the statement does not correctly reproduce what was stated by the declarant. Accordingly, the dying declaration should not have been rejected.The dying declaration in the instant case was a long docu- ment containing a narrative of a large number of incidents which happened before the actual assault, which was more in the nature of the First Information Report :- Held, that the object of a dying declaration being to get from the person making the statement the cause of his death or the circumstances of the transaction which resulted in his death, persons who record such declaration should not include in that statement details which are not relevant under S. 32(1) of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, unless they are necessary to make the statement coherent or complete.It is desirable that rules should be framed for the guidance of persons recording dying declarations, and included in the Rules and Orders made by the High Court.Where a person who was stated in the dying declaration to have witnessed the occurrence was not examined by the prose- cution at the trial on the ground that he had been won over and it was contended that this was a serious omission and an adverse inference should be drawn:- Held, that there was no obligation on the part of the prose- cution to examine this witness and that the court would not interfere with the discretion of the prosecutor, 410Abdul Mohammad v. Attorney General of Palestine, A.I.R.1945 P. C. 42, Stephen Servaraine v. The King, A. 1. R.1936 P. C. 298,and Habeeb Mohammed v. The State of Hydera- bad, 1954 S.C.R. 475, referred to.See the full content of this document
Extract
Bakhshish Singh VS. The State Of Punjab
PETITIONER: BAKHSHISH SINGH Vs.RESPONDENT: THE STATE OF PUNJABDATE OF JUDGMENT: 17/09/1957BENCH: KAPUR, J.L.BENCH: KAPUR, J.L.SINHA, BHUVNESHWAR P.MENON, P. GOVINDACITATION: 1957 AIR 904 1958 SCR 409ACT: Criminal law-Dying declaration-Scope of -Recording statement in Urdu, while deceased spoke in Punjabi-Reliability Discre- tion of the prosecutor in calling witnesses-Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (1 Of 1872), S. 22 (1).JUDGMENT: CRIMINAL APPFLLATE JURISDICTION: Criminal Appeal No. 205 of 1956.Appeal by special leave from the judgment and order dated the 30th November, 1955, of the Punjab High Court in Crimi- nal Appeal No. 282 of 1955, arising out of the judgment and order dated the 15th February, 1955, of the Court of the Additional Sessions Judge at Amritsar in Sessions Case No.64 of Trial No. 6 of 1955.R. L. Anand, and S. N. Anand, for the appell...
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