Legal Dictations Exercise-217: 100 WPM & 400 Words

A dying declaration, therefore, enjoys almost sacrosanct status as a piece of evidence coming as it does from the mouth of the deceased victim. Once the statement of dying person and the evidence of the witnesses testifying to the same passes the test of careful scrutiny of the Courts, it becomes very important and reliable piece of evidence and the Court is satisfied that the dying declaration is true and free from embellishment such a dying declaration by itself can be sufficient for recording conviction without looking for any corroboration. A Division Bench of this Court in its judgment in the case of State versus Koli Chunilal reported in 2000 (4) GLR 3277 has after referring to the earlier judgment of the Hon’ble Apex Court discussed about the test and observed that Supreme Court emphasized that shortness of the statement itself guarantees truth. Once of the important tests of reliability of dying declaration that the person who recorded it must be satisfied that the deceased was in a fit state of mind. Generally, the following three tests have been devised in judicial pronouncement in order to answer the question whether the dying declaration is true. Was the victim in a position to identify the assailants, whether the version narrated by the victim is intrinsically sound and accords with probabilities, whether any material part is proved to be false by other reliable evidence? Moreover, the contention which has been raised and much emphasized by learned Advocate Ms. Rekha Kapadia that dying declaration does not bear the endorsement of the doctor about the condition of the deceased patient and, therefore, is not reliable has been considered and dealt with by the Hon’ble Apex Court and it clearly answers the contentions raised by learned Advocate Ms. Rekha Kapadia that the dying declaration ought not to be relied on as there was no endorsement of the doctor on the dying declaration itself and that the doctor was not examined and the said contention was negative by the Hon’ble Apex Court. It has been observed that the Court is unable to accept the submission of the learned counsel that two dying declaration cannot be relied upon as the doctor has not been examined and the doctor has not made any endorsement on the dying declaration with regard to the condition of the deceased, the Magistrate who recorded the dying declaration has been examined as a witness.