COURSE MANUAL

LAW OF EVIDENCE

B.A.LL.B. - 2012

Course Instructors

Khagesh Gautam, Shikha Beri, Shiladitya Rakshit & Manveen Singh

SEMESTER VI
August-December, 2014

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 OP JINDAL GLOBAL UNIVERSITY
Jindal Global Law School
B.A. LL.B.
Law of Evidence

Course Title LAW OF EVIDENCE

Course Number LW1304_______________________________

Course Duration One Semester

No. of Credit Units FOUR

Level LL.B._________________________

Medium of Instruction ENGLISH

Pre-requisites Nil

Pre-cursors Nil

Equivalent Courses Nil

Exclusive Courses __________ Nil_________________________________

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COURSE AIMS

This course is
 An introductory course on law of evidence which is one of the most
fundamental branches of law.
 An elementary course aiming at developing the capabilities to understand
and apply the general principles of relevancy and admissibility.
 Structured in a fashion so as to encourage the students to appreciate the
underlying principles of law of evidence. The course serves a dual purpose-
One, to technically equip students to be able to read the legal text and apply
the same in actual cases. Second, the course aims to scrutinize certain areas
of evidence critically so as to infuse the spirit of questioning and law reforms.
 By no means exhaustive in its scope. It only covers certain selected principles
and a selection of sections primarily, but not only, of the Indian Evidence Act,
1872 (IEA) so as to provide a taste of this subject to strengthen your basics
for your future legal career.
 Due to the limitation of time certain topics are added to be discussed only
elementarily in the class. The purpose for this is an attempt to at least cover
maximum possible areas that may accost the students in their professional
career.
 An attempt will be made to understand the controversies that are a part and
parcel of evidence law along with a careful study of bare act.

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COURSE INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES

LEARNING OUTOMES
The Indian Evidence Act, 1872 is a long piece of legislation that codifies the rules of
evidence. Because of the length of this legislation it is impossible to cover every
single rule or even set of rules codified in this law in one single semester.
Therefore, only the leading principles will be covered. However, a detailed
discussion of all the leading principles that will be covered will provide the students
to have a good theoretical and working knowledge of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872
and will equip them to study the subject on their own.
The stress in this course will be on examining the judicial precedents where these
principles have been subject to judicial scrutiny and interpretation. Thus, a
detailed and in-depth discussion of high watermark Supreme Court decisions will
be undertaken. We will being with basic discussion on the provisions of law and
jump head on into the judicial precedents examining extremely closely the facts of
the case and how the principle of law was applied. We will try to isolate the
standard used by the Court to work the principle. After that we will read the
provision of law once again. In this way, we will understand not just the text of rule
as laid down in the law but the true standard by which the rule is worked in
practice.
By the end of this course the students would –
 Have a good understanding of the elementary principle of the Law of
Evidence as laid down in the Indian Evidence Act, 1872
 Have a good understanding of working of the important provisions of the
Indian Evidence Act, 1872
 Have a basic understanding of the engineering of the Indian Evidence Act,
1872
 Have a good understanding of the leading cases where important provisions
of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 have been interpreted by the Supreme
Court of India and the doctrine of the Court in this particular area of law

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GRADING OF STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

To pass this course, students must obtain a minimum of 50% in the examination.
End of semester exam will be in the form of a traditional three-hour written exam.

Letter Grade Total Course Grade Definitions

Grade Value Marks
(50 for exam, 25
for essays & 25
for tutorials)
O 7 70 and above Outstanding Sound knowledge of the subject
matter, excellent organizational
capacity, ability to synthesize ideas,
rules and principles, critically
analyse existing materials and
originality in thinking and
presentation.
A+ 6 65 to 69.75 Excellent Sound knowledge of the subject
matter, thorough understanding of
issues; ability to synthesize ideas,
rules and principles and critical and
analytical ability.
A 5 60 to 64.75 Good Good understanding of the subject
matter, ability to identify issues and
provide balanced solutions to
problems and good critical and
analytical skills.
B+ 4 55 to 59.75 Adequate Adequate knowledge of the subject
matter to go to the next level of
study and reasonable critical and
analytical skills.
B 3 50 to 54.75 Marginal Limited knowledge of the subject
matter and irrelevant use of
materials and, poor critical and
analytical skills.
F 0.0 Below 50 Failure Poor comprehension of the subject
matter; poor critical and analytical
skills and marginal use of the
relevant materials. Will require
repeating the course.

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PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL ASSIGNMENTS ARE DUE AS HARD COPIES, AND E-MAILED
COPIES WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED FOR FULL CREDIT. SO BE ATTENTIVE TO DUE
DATES AND TIMES.

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KEYWORD SYLLABUS

Indian Evidence Act – Theory of Relevancy – Admission – Confession –

Dying Declaration – Burden of Proof – Documentary Evidence – Oral
Evidence – Expert Evidence – Estoppel – Examination and Cross
Examination of Witnesses – Privileged Communication – Evidentiary
Presumptions

DETAILED SYLLABUS
The syllabus is divided into 6 (six) Units as follows –
1. Unit I – Introduction
1.1 Introduction to Law of Evidence Generally
1.2 Introduction to the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 Specifically
2. Unit II – What Facts are Required to be Proved?
2.1 Part 1 – Theory of Relevancy
2.2 Part 2 – Admissions
2.3 Part 3 – Dying Declarations
2.4 Part 4 – Confessions
2.5 Part 5 – Approver’s Evidence
3. Unit III – Who is required to prove those facts?
3.1 Burden of Proof
3.2 Evidentiary Presumptions
4. Unit IV – What kind of evidence is sufficient to prove these facts?
4.1 Part 1 – Documentary Evidence
4.2 Part 2 – Oral Evidence
4.3 Part 3 – Expert Evidence
4.4 Part 4 – Estoppel
4.5 Part 5 – Privileged Communication
5. Unit V – Witnesses
5.1 Witnesses in General
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5.2 Examination and Cross Examination of Witnesses
5.3 Power of the Judge to call and examine a witness

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READINGS

Cases and Materials will be supplied to the students by the respective Course
Instructors. These cases and materials will be the primary reading materials for
this course. The class discussion will revolve around these Cases and Materials.
The mid-term and the final exam will also be based on these primary reading
materials. In addition to the Cases and Materials supplied for the reading, the
students are free to refer to any text book on the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 as they
deem appropriate.

The students are expected to carry with them to the class a copy of the Indian
Evidence Act, 1872 (Bare-Act) and the Cases and Materials that will be supplied by
the Course Instructor. The students are further expected to carefully read the
prescribed portions of the Bare-Act and the Cases and Materials.

Recommended Text-books

VEPA P. SARATHI, LAW OF EVIDENCE (2008)

AVTAR SINGH, PRINCIPLES OF LAW OF EVIDENCE (LATEST EDITION)

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LECTURE PROGRAMME

The following lecture schedule is tentative and may be revised by the instructor(s).

Teaching Lecture Title

Week
1 Unit 1 – Introduction
 Introduction to Law of Evidence generally
 Introduction to the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 specifically
2 Unit II – What facts are required to be proved?
 Part 1 – Theory of Relevancy
3 Unit II contd.
 Part 2 – Admissions
 Part 3 – Dying Declarations
4 Unit II contd.
 Part 4 – Confessions
5 Unit II contd.
 Part 4 – Confession contd.
Unit III – Who is required to prove those facts?
 Part 1 – Burden of Proof
6 Unit III contd.
 Part 1 – Burden of Proof
 Part 2 – Evidentiary Presumptions
7 Unit III contd.
 Part 2 – Evidentiary Presumptions
8 Unit IV – Types of Evidence
 Part 1 – Documentary Evidence
9 Unit IV contd.

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  Part 2 – Estoppel
 Part 3 – Oral Evidence
10 Unit IV contd.
 Part 3 – Oral Evidence
 Part 4 – Expert Evidence
11 Unit IV contd.
 Part 4 – Expert Evidence
 Part 5 – Privileged Communication
12 Unit V – Witnesses
 Part 1 – Witnesses in General
13 Unit V contd.
 Part 2 – Examination and Cross Examination of
Witnesses
14 Unit V contd.
 Part 3 – Power of a Judge to call and examine a Witness
15 Review

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 List of Cases
This list of cases is recommendatory in nature and subject to revision by individual
course instructor. Since every course instructor has his/her own individual style of
teaching the case list has been kept short in order provide enough room to
individual course instructors to supplement this list by other readings/cases that
they prefer to use.

Theory of Relevancy
Union of India v. T. R. Varma, AIR 1952 SC 882
Poornal Mal v. Director of Inspection, AIR 1974 SC 348
State of Punjab v. Baldev Singh, AIR 1999 SC 2378

Res Gestae
G. V. Rao v. State of Andhra Pradesh, AIR 1996 SC 2791

Test Identification Parade

Daya Singh v. State of Haryana, AIR 2001 SC 1188

Admissions
Sahoo v. State of U.P., AIR 1966 SC 40
Sita Ram Bhau Patil v. Ramchandra Nago Patil, AIR 1977 SC 1712

Dying Declarations
Kushal Rao v. State of Bombay, AIR 1958 SC 22
Harbans Singh v. State of Punjab, AIR 1962 SC 439

Confessions
State of U.P. v. Deoman Upadhyaya, AIR 1960 SC 1125
Haricharan Kurmi v. State of Bihar, AIR 1964 SC 1184
Aghnoo Nagesia v. State of Bihar, AIR 1966 SC 119
Bheru Singh v. State of Rajasthan, (1994) 2 SCC 467
State of Punjab v. Barkat Ram, AIR 1962 SC 276
Raja Ram Jaiswal v. State of Bihar, AIR 1964 SC 828

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State of Bombay v. Kathi Kalu Oghad, AIR 1961 SC 1808

Burden of Proof
Gavate v. State of Maharashtra, AIR 1977 SC 183
Shambhu Nath Mehra v. State of Ajmer, AIR 1956 SC 404
Amba Lal v. Union of India, AIR 1961 SC 264
Collector of Customs, Madras v. D. Bhoormal, AIR 1974 SC 859

Evidentiary Presumptions
Kali Ram v. State of H.P., AIR 1973 SC 2773
S. N. Bose v. State of Bihar, AIR 1968 SC 1292
K. L. Rallaram v. Custodia, Evacuee Property, Bombay, AIR 1961 SC 1316
Hans Raj v. State of Haryana, (2004) 12 SCC 257

Documentary Evidence
State of Bihar v. Radha Krishna Singh, AIR 1983 SC 684
Marvari Kumhar v. B. G. Ganeshpuri, AIR 2000 SC 2629

Estoppel
Deshpande v. Deshpande, AIR 1954 SC 82
Shreedhar v. Munireddy, AIR 2003 SC 578

Oral Evidence
Bai Hira Devi v. Official Assignee of Bombay, AIR 1958 SC 448
B. Gangaram v. State of Gujarat, AIR 1983 SC 906
Gulzar Khan v. Vijay Laxmi, 2013 (4) ALJ 417 (Allahabad High Court)
Bhawanbhai Premabhai v. Bai Vahali, AIR 1955 Bom. 320 (Bombay High Court)

Expert Evidence
Sri Chand Batra v. State of U.P., AIR 1974 SC 639
State of H.P. v. Jai Lal, AIR 1974 SC 639
Selvi v. State of Karnataka, AIR 2010 SC 1974

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Privileged Communication
Ram Bharosey v. State of U.P., AIR 1954 SC 704
State of Punjab v. Sodhi Sukhdev Singh, AIR 1961 SC 493

Witnesses
Ramchandra Rambux v. Champabai, AIR 1965 SC 354
Rameshwar v. State of Rajasthan, AIR 1952 SC 54
Laxmipat Choraria v. State of Maharashtra, AIR 1968 SC 938
R. D. Nayak v. State of Gujarat, AIR 2004 SC 23

Examination and Cross Examination and Re-Examination of Witnesses

Varkey Joseph v. State of Kerala, AIR 1993 SC 1892
Pannayar v. State of Tamil Nadu, AIR 2010 SC 85
B. B. Hirjibhai v. State of Gujarat, AIR 1983 SC 753

Power of the Judge to Call and Examine a Witness

J. K. Govani v. State of Maharashtra, AIR 1968 SC 178
Ram Chander v. State of Haryana, AIR 1981 SC 1036
Raghunandan v. State of U.P., AIR 1974 SC 436

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