Test: Indian Evidence Act - CLAT MCQ

The provisions of Section 126 apply to interpreters, and the clerks or servants of barristers pleaders, attorneys and vakils.

Salmond said that “the process by which the court seeks to ascertain the meaning of Legislatures through the medium of authoritative forms in which it is expressed.” The legal authority of an enactment is derived from the letter of the law and also its spirit. Other forms of law like custom do not have the letter of law to stand in between the spirit of the law and its judicial application. Hence it is in the case of enacted law that the question of interpretation or construction arises.

Oaths or affirmations to be made by witnesses, interpreters and jurors

1. Oaths or affirmations shall be made by the following persons, namely

• All witnesses, that is to say, all persons who may lawfully be examined or give, or be required to give, evidence by or before any court or person having by law or consent of parties authority to examine such persons or to receive evidence.
• Interpreters of questions put to, and evidence given by, witnesses and
• Jurors : Provided that where the witness is a child under twelve years of age, and the court or person having authority to examine such witness is of opinion that, though the witness understands the duty of speaking the truth, he does not understand the nature of an oath or affirmation, the foregoing provisions of section 5 shall not apply to such witness; but in any such case the absence of an oath or affirmation shall not render inadmissible any evidence given by such witness nor affect the obligation of the witness to state the truth.

2. Nothing in this section shall render it lawful to administer, in a criminal proceeding, an oath or affirmation to the accused person, unless she is examined as a witness for the defense, or necessary to administer to the official interpreter of any court, after he has entered on the execution of the duties of his office, an oath or affirmation that he will faithfully discharge those duties. 

As per section 108 of the Indian Evidence Act 1872 “Person is presumed to be dead who is unheard of for more than seven years by those who would naturally have heard of him/ her if he/ she had been alive”. It means in the absence of valid death certificate family members will not be able to even touch the money and investment for another minimum seven years. The procedure is also long.

Under Evidence Act, 1872 all persons are competent to testify, unless the Court considers that, by reason of tender age, extreme old age, disease, or infirmity, they are incapable of understanding the questions put to them and of giving rational answers. Even a lunatic is competent to testify, provided he is not prevented by his lunacy from understanding the questions put to him and giving rational answers to them.

Husbands and wives are, in all civil and criminal cases, competent witnesses against each other, subject to the qualification that communications between the spouses made during marriage are protected from disclosure.

In all civil proceedings, the parties to the suit are competent witness. Therefore, a party to a suit can call as his witness any of the defendants to the suit. And although an accused person is incompetent to testify in proceedings in which he is an accused, an accomplice is a competent witness against an accused person.

According to Indian Evidence Act, 1872, all persons are competent to testify, unless prevented from (a) Understanding the questions or (b) Giving rational answers by reason of –

(i)Tender years, (ii) Extreme old age, (iii) Disease of Body or mind, or (iv) Any other similar cause, (S.118).

A lunatic is competent to testify – unless he is prevented by lunacy from understanding the questions and giving rational answers to them. (S. 118)

As per the section 143 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, leading questions may be asked in cross-examination.

According to Section 102 of the Indian Evidence Act, the burden of proof in a suit or proceeding lies on that person who would fail if no evidence at all were given on either side.

Section 141: Leading Questions – Any question suggesting the answer which the person putting it wishes or expects to receive is called a leading question.

Section 142: When they must not be asked – Leading questions must not, if objected to by the adverse party, be asked in an examination in chief, or in a reexamination, except with the permission of the Court,” The court shall permit leading questions as to matters which are introductory or undisputed, or which have, in its opinion, been already sufficiently proved.

Section 143: When they may be asked – Leading questions may be asked in cross examination.

According to the section 134 in The Indian Evidence Act, 1872, “No particular number of witnesses shall in any case be required for the proof of any fact.” The courts are concerned with the merit of the statement of a particular witness. They are not concerned with the number of witnesses examined by the prosecution: Raja v. State, (1997) 2 Crimes 175 (Del).