AIR 1965 SUPREME COURT 939 ::1965 MadLJ(Cri) 510 ::1965 2 SCJ 157 ::1965 (1) SCWR 646 ::1965 SCD 445

Supreme Court Of India

(From Mysore)*25th September, 1964.

Hon'ble Judge(s): Ajit Kumar Sarkar, N. Rajagopala Ayyangar, R. S. Bachawat , JJJ

Evidence Act (1 of 1872) , S.32(1)— Dying declaration - Evidentiary value - Corroboration - When necessary. Cr. App. No. 251 of 1962 dated 20-2-1963 (Mys.) Reversed. A dying declaration is relevant and material evidence in the prosecution of the assailants and a truthful and reliable dying declaration may form the sole basis of conviction, even though it is not corroborated. But the court must be satisfied that the declaration is truthful. The reliability of the declaration should be subjected to a close scrutiny, considering that it was made in the absence of the accused who had no opportunity to test its veracity by cross-examination. If the Court finds that the declaration is not wholly reliable and a material and integral portion of the deceased's version of the entire occurrence is untrue, the Court may, in all the circumstances of the case consider it unsafe to convict the accused on the basis of the declaration alone without further corroboration. Held on facts that considering all the circumstances of the case, the dying declarations suffered from an infirmity and were not reliable by themselves and could not safely form the basis of the conviction of the accused without further corroboration. As no such corroboration was forthcoming in the case, the accused were given the benefit of doubt and were acquitted. ....