Content Provider | Supreme Court of India |
---|---|
e-ISSN | 30484839 |
Language | English |
Access Restriction | NDLI |
Subject Keyword | Evidence Act s.374 Appellate jurisdiction 1872 s.118 Power of High Court Competency of child witness |
Content Type | Text |
Resource Type | Law Judgement |
Jurisdiction | India |
Act(s) Referred | Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974) Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (1 of 1872) |
Case(s) Referred | Referred Case 0 Referred Case 1 Referred Case 2 Referred Case 3 |
Case Type | Appeal |
Court | Supreme Court of India |
Disposal Nature | Appeal Dismissed |
Headnote | Evidence Act, 1872 – s.118 – Competency of child witness – Appellant was tried for the murder of his wife – Convicted by the Sessions Judge for offences u/ss.302, 498A – During the course of the trial, the prosecution sought to adduce the evidence of PW-3 and PW-4, the children of the appellant and the deceased – When their evidence was to be recorded, PW-3 was eight-years-old while PW-4 was six-years-old – Trial judge posed certain initial queries to them for assessing whether they were capable of deposing in evidence and concluded that their testimony could not be recorded as they were not competent witnesses – High Court set aside the judgment of the Trial Court and remanded the case to the Trial Court with a direction to examine PW-3 and PW-4 after objectively ascertaining their capacity to depose – On appeal, held: Question which weighed with the Trial Court in coming to the conclusion that PW-3 and PW-4 were incapable of deposing was whether the children knew the person they were standing before – To these questions, PW-3 and PW-4 stated that they were unaware of that person – Trial judge, purely on this basis, found that the testimonies of the child witnesses would be unacceptable on the ground that the witnesses did not know the judge and the lawyers – Reason which weighed with the trial judge in preventing the evidence of PW-3 and PW-4 from being recorded was manifestly erroneous and would result in a miscarriage of justice – Significantly, both PW-3 and PW-4 were aware of the reason for their presence in the court – A child of tender age can be allowed to testify if she/he has the intellectual capacity to understand questions and give rational answers thereto – A child becomes incompetent only in case the court considers that the child was unable to understand the questions and answer them in a coherent and comprehensible manner –If the child understands the questions put to her/him and gives rational answers to those questions, it can be taken that she/he is a competent witness to be examined – Grounds which weighed with the trial judge were erroneous – Penal Code, 1860 – ss.302, 498A – Oaths Act, 1969 – s.4. |
Judge | Hon'ble Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud |
Neutral Citation | 2019 INSC 737 |
Petitioner | P Ramesh |
Respondent | State Rep By Inspector Of Police |
SCR | [2019] 10 S.C.R. 875 |
Judgement Date | 2019-07-09 |
Case Number | 1013 |
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