NEW DELHI: An authentic dying declaration that inspires the confidence of the court can be relied upon and be the sole basis for the conviction of an accused without any corroboration, the Supreme Court has said.
The top court made this observation on May 15 while upholding the conviction of an ex-army personnel for murdering his wife, a police constable, in Maharashtra’s Beed district 22 years ago.
It said that the court has to scrutinise the dying declaration and ensure it is consistent, credible and devoid of tutoring.
A dying declaration means a statement written or verbally of some relevant facts made by a person who is dead. It is dealt under clause (1) of section 32 of the Indian Evidence Act 1872. Generally, it relates to the cause of death of a declarant. Dying declaration can be proved by the person who records it.
Generally, the court takes the dying declaration of a person as a reliable, trustworthy statement.
A bench of Justices Abhay S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan observed that there was a need for careful scrutiny of dying declarations to ensure they are voluntary and untutored.
“Once validated, such declarations hold significant sanctity and can independently support a conviction,” the top court said in its order and relying on the victim’s dying declaration, upheld the conviction of the victim’s husband.
In this case, the victim alleged that she was assaulted by her husband and brother-in-law who tied her hands and her feet and gagged her face.
Her brother-in-law then got a matchbox and a bottle of kerosene, which the husband poured on her, and then lit the matchstick. The woman got completely burnt in the incident.
The woman was rushed to a hospital where while undergoing treatment, she gave a dying declaration pointing fingers towards her husband before succumbing to her injuries.
The trial court had earlier convicted the husband, which was later upheld by the Bombay High Court.
After scrutinising the evidence, the top court has now reinforced this decision, and upheld the two earlier orders, and directed the appellant to surrender within two weeks.