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Lawmann's Controversial Evidence — With Cross References to New Criminal Laws by Dr. M. L. Dharmapurikar, published by Lawmann's (Kamal Publishers), is a practical treatment of the disputed and difficult questions of evidence law — the points on which objections are actually taken in a trial court and on which appeals are actually won and lost. This is the Second Edition, carrying cross references to the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023.

Evidence is the branch of law in which the general principle is rarely in doubt and the application almost always is. Whether a dying declaration recorded by a police officer can be acted on without corroboration, whether a confession made in custody is saved by the discovery of a fact, whether a hostile witness's earlier statement retains any value, whether an electronic record is admissible without the certificate — these are the questions on which trials turn, and they are the questions this book is organised around.

Key Features

• Second Edition, published by Lawmann's
• Cross references to the new criminal laws — the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, alongside the corresponding provisions of the repealed Indian Evidence Act, 1872, the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973
• Organised around the controversial and disputed questions rather than section by section
• Supported throughout by the decisions of the Supreme Court and the High Courts
• Written for the trial court practitioner
• Hardbound, English

Coverage

Admissions and Confessions. The distinction between an admission and a confession; extra-judicial confessions and the weight to be given to them; confessions to a police officer and confessions in police custody; the effect of section 23 of the BSA (section 25–26 of the Evidence Act); how much of a statement leading to discovery is admissible; retracted confessions; and the confession of a co-accused.

Dying Declarations. Whether a dying declaration can be the sole basis of conviction; the requirement of fitness of mind and the medical certificate; declarations recorded by a magistrate, by a police officer and by a doctor; multiple and inconsistent declarations; and incomplete declarations.

Witnesses and Their Testimony. The hostile witness and how far the evidence of a witness declared hostile may still be relied on; interested, related and chance witnesses; the solitary witness; child witnesses; the testimony of an accomplice and the need for corroboration; and the evidentiary effect of contradictions and omissions.

Examination, Cross-Examination and Re-Examination. Leading questions, the mode of putting contradictions, previous statements under section 161 CrPC / section 180 BNSS, and the consequences of failing to cross-examine on a point.

Identification. Test identification parades and their value, identification for the first time in court, and identification of the dead and of property.

Documentary Evidence. Primary and secondary evidence and when secondary evidence may be given; proof of the execution of a document required by law to be attested; presumptions as to documents; and the bar on oral evidence to contradict a written instrument.

Electronic Evidence. The admissibility of electronic records, the certificate requirement under section 63 of the BSA (section 65B of the Evidence Act), call detail records, CCTV footage, audio and video recordings, and the treatment of mobile phone data.

Expert Evidence. The weight of medical evidence and its conflict with ocular evidence; handwriting and fingerprint experts; ballistic and forensic reports; and DNA evidence.

Burden of Proof and Presumptions. The burden on the prosecution and the shifting of the onus; statutory presumptions; the presumption of innocence; and the treatment of circumstantial evidence and the chain of circumstances.

Who Should Buy This Book?

• Criminal lawyers appearing in trial and sessions courts
• Public prosecutors and additional public prosecutors
• Defence counsel framing objections and cross-examination
• Judicial officers and magistrates
• Investigating officers and police prosecutors
• Candidates for judicial service examinations
• LL.B. and LL.M. students of the law of evidence
• Law libraries and bar association collections

Why Choose This Book?

A commentary arranged section by section answers the question "what does this provision say". A trial lawyer more often needs the answer to "can this be let in, and if it is, what is it worth" — and that answer is usually spread across several provisions and a line of cases. This book is built the second way: each controversy is stated, the competing positions are set out, and the decisions that settle or unsettle it are given.

The second edition also does the work of translation that every criminal practitioner now has to do daily. With the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam replacing the Evidence Act and the BNS and BNSS replacing the IPC and the CrPC, the case law of a century and a half is stated in the numbering of the old statutes while the charge sheet is drawn in the numbering of the new. The cross references carried through this edition let the reader move between the two without losing the authority.