NDLI: Uttam Vs. The State of Maharashtra

Content Provider	Supreme Court of India
e-ISSN	30484839
Language	English
Access Restriction	NDLI
Subject Keyword	Evidence Act 1872 – Multiple dying declarations – Admissibility 1860 – s.302 evidentiary value of – Penal Code
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Law Judgement
Jurisdiction	India
Case(s) Referred	Referred Case 0 Referred Case 1 Referred Case 2 Referred Case 3 Referred Case 4 Referred Case 5 Referred Case 6 Referred Case 7 Referred Case 8 Referred Case 9 Referred Case 10
Case Type	Appeal
Court	Supreme Court of India
Disposal Nature	Appeal Allowed
Headnote	Evidence Act, 1872 – Multiple dying declarations – Admissibility, evidentiary value of – Penal Code, 1860 – s.302 – Appellant convicted u/s.302 for having murdered his wife by pouring kerosene on her and setting her on fire, by relying on two dying declarations of the deceased recorded in writing by PW-9 (Special Executive Magistrate) and PW-14 (IO) and the other two being oral and communicated by the deceased to PW-2 (her father) and PW12 (mediator who had arranged the marriage of the parties) – Appeal filed by appellant, dismissed by High Court discarding the written dying declarations but giving credence to the testimony of PW-2 & PW-12 – On appeal, held: In cases where the Court finds that there exist more than one dying declarations, each one of them must be examined with care and caution and only after satisfying itself as to which of the dying declarations appears to be free from suspicious circumstances and has been made voluntarily, should it be accepted – However, if a dying declaration suffers from some infirmity, it cannot be the sole basis for convicting the accused – In the present case, once the High Court discarded the two written dying declarations of the deceased due to several glaring lacunae in the procedure adopted by PW-9 & PW-14 in recording the said statement, then the appellant could not have been indicted on the oral testimony of PW-2 and PW-12, both of whom were interested witnesses and whose evidence runs contrary to the versions of the deceased recorded by PW-9 and PW-14 – Prosecution failed to discharge the obligation of leading trustworthy corroborative evidence to back-up the testimonies of PW-2 and PW-12 – Impugned judgment set aside – Appellant granted benefit of doubt, acquitted. Evidence Act, 1872 – ss.32, 60 – Dying declaration – s.32, an exception to general rule contained in s.60 – Held: s.32 is an exception to the general rule contained in s.60 that ‘hearsay evidence is inadmissible’ and only when such an evidence is direct and is validated through cross-examination, is it considered to be trustworthy. Evidence Act, 1872 – Dying declaration recorded by the Magistrate – Credibility of – Discussed.
Judge	Hon'ble Ms. Justice Hima Kohli
Neutral Citation	2022 INSC 634
Petitioner	Uttam
Respondent	The State Of Maharashtra
SCR	[2022] 5 S.C.R. 863
Judgement Date	2022-06-02
Case Number	485

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

Uttam Vs. The State of Maharashtra

Please Log-in to view this content

Shudhakar Vs. State of M.p.

J. Ramulu Vs. State of Andhra Pradesh

George Vs. State of Kerala

State of Karnataka Vs. Panchakshari Gurupadayya Hiramath.

Ravindra @ Ravi Bansi Gohar. Vs. State of Maharashtra and Ors.

Lakhan Vs. State of M.p.

Waikhom Yaima Singh Vs. State of Manipur

Muralidhar @ Gidda & Anr. Vs. State of Karnataka

Mani Vs. State of Tamil Nadu

Uttam Vs. The State of Maharashtra

Uttam Vs. The State of Maharashtra

Please Log-in to view this content

Similar Documents

Shudhakar Vs. State of M.p.

J. Ramulu Vs. State of Andhra Pradesh

George Vs. State of Kerala

State of Karnataka Vs. Panchakshari Gurupadayya Hiramath.

Ravindra @ Ravi Bansi Gohar. Vs. State of Maharashtra and Ors.

Lakhan Vs. State of M.p.

Waikhom Yaima Singh Vs. State of Manipur

Muralidhar @ Gidda & Anr. Vs. State of Karnataka

Mani Vs. State of Tamil Nadu

Uttam Vs. The State of Maharashtra