GURU GHASIDAS UNIVERSITY, BILASPUR

SCHOOL OF LAW

PROJECT ON

LAW OF EVIDENCE

“EXAMINATION- MAIN, CROSS AND RE-EXAMINATION”

B.A-LL.B 6th SEM

DATE OF SUBMISSION- / /

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 CONTENTS

1. Introduction
2. Judge to decide as to admissibility of the evidence (section136)
3. Examination-in-chief, cross-examination, re-examination
(section137)
4. Order of examination (section 138)
5. Conclusion
6. Bibliography

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INTRODUCTION
This topic is given in chapter X of Indian Evidence Act, 1872. This topic deals with the
manner of the leading of the evidence of the competent witnesses. The sections of this topic
assume that the witnesses are already before the court. This deals with the examination of the
witness in chief, their cross-examination, the method of impeaching the credit of the
witnesses and so on.
It is the general principle of law that a witness must testify in his or her own words. In order
to protect the integrity of the evidence, a party who calls a witness is prevented from asking
leading questions.

SECTION 136:- JUDGE TO DECIDE AS TO ADMISSIBILITY OF

EVIDENCE—
When either party proposes to give evidence of any fact, the Judge may ask the party
proposing to give the evidence in what manner the alleged fact, if proved, would be relevant;
and the Judge shall admit the evidence if he thinks that the fact, if proved, would be relevant,
and not otherwise.

If the fact proposed to be proved is one of which evidence is admissible only upon proof of
some other fact, such last-mentioned fact must be proved before evidence is given of the fact
first mentioned, unless the party undertakes to give proof of such fact and the Court is
satisfied with such undertaking.

If the relevancy of the alleged fact depends upon another alleged fact being first proved, the
Judge may, in his discretion, either permit evidence of the first fact to be given before the
second fact is proved or acquire evidence to be given of the second fact before evidence is
given of the first fact.

Illustration:-

 A is accused of receiving stolen property knowing it to have been stolen.

It is proposed to prove that he denied the possession of the property.
The relevancy of the denial depends on the identity of the property. The Court may, in
its discretion, either require the property to be identified before the denial of the
possession is proved, or permit the denial of the possession to be proved before the
property is identified.

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SECTION 137:- EXAMINATION IN CHIEF--The examination of a witness, by
the party who calls him, shall be called his examination-in-chief.

CROSS EXAMINATION-- The examination of a witness by the adverse party shall be

called his cross- examination.

RE-EXAMINATION-- The examination of a witness, subsequent to the cross-

examination by the party who called him, shall be called his re-examination.

Examination-in-chief:- When a witness presents himself before the court, he is given oath or
affirmation. His name and address is taken down. Then it is the province of the party by
whom the witness is called to examine him for the purpose of eliciting from the witness, all
the material facts within his knowledge which tend to prove his case. This is called
examination-in-chief.
The object of examination-in-chief is to elicit the truth, to prove the facts which bear
upon the issue in favour of the party calling the witness.
The witness can give evidence of fact only and no evidence of law.

No examination-in-chief and cross-examination:- If there has been no examination in

chief of a witness on a particular fact or issue and he has not been cross examined on the said
aspect of the matter by the defence, the same can neither be relied on by the defence nor any
finding can be based on the same by the court.

Cross-examination:- After the party calling the witness has finished the examination-in-
chief, the opposite party has a right to cross-examine the witness. Cross-examination, if
properly conducted, is one of the most useful and efficacious means of discovering the truth.
Cross-examination is not confined to matter proved in examination-in-chief, the
slightest examination-in-chief even for formal proof gives right to the cross-examiner to put
questions about the whole of his case.
If any party has a right to participate in inquiry or trial, then, such party can cross-
examine the witness after they are examined by the court during enquiry under section 138 of
Evidence Act.

Effect of not cross-examining:- When a fact is stated in examination-in-chief and there is no

cross-examination on that point naturally it leads to the inference that the other party accepts
the truth of the statement.
The mere fact that the witnesses examined by the opposite side have
not been effectively cross-examined does not mean that the court is bound to accept their
evidence. Courts are not precluded from assessing the veracity of witnesses in the absence of
any cross-examination.

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Case:- In Jai Shree Yadav v. State of U.P., [AIR 2004 SC 4443] the Hon'ble Supreme Court
held that when a witness is subjected to lengthy arduous cross-examination over a lengthy
period time there is always a possibility of the witnesses committing mistakes which can be
termed as omissions, improvements and contradictions therefore those infirmities will have to
be appreciated in the background of ground realities which makes the witness confused
because of the filibustering tactics of the cross-examining counsel.

SECTION 138:- ORDER OF EXAMINATION--

Witness shall be first examines-in-chief then (if the adverse party so desires) cross-examined,
then(if the party calling him so desires) re-examined.
The examination and cross-examination must relate to relevant facts, but the
cross-examination need not be confined to the facts to which the witness testified on his
examination-in-chief.

Direction of re-examination-
The re-examination shall be directed to the explanation of matters referred to in cross-
examination, and if new matter by permission of the Court, introduced in re- examination, the
adverse party may further cross-examine upon that matter.

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CONCLUSION

Section 137 and 138 are so connected together that it would be convenient to deal with them
together. Section 137 defines examination-in-chief, cross-examination and re-examination.
The mere reading of the section shows that the examination of a witness includes
examination-in-chief, cross-examination and re-examination.
Section 137 of the Evidence Act gives meaning of the terms
“examination-in-chief”, “cross-examination” and “re-examination”. Section 138 gives order
of examination-in-chief, cross-examination and re-examination. This section also gives the
extent to which examination-in-chief, cross-examination and re-examination may go. Section
138 does not deals with the admissibility of evidence, but merely lays down that a witness
shall first be examined-in-chief, then cross-examined and lastly re-examined.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Book referred:
 Batuk Lal : The law of Evidence
Website referred:
 www.legalbites.in