India News | Law of Evidence Has Stood the Test of Time: SC Judge
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The Indian law of evidence has stood the test of time and barring a few amendments, it has remained as it was 150 years ago, said Supreme Court Judge UU Lalit on Friday.
New Delhi, Feb 4 (PTI) The Indian law of evidence has stood the test of time and barring a few amendments, it has remained as it was 150 years ago, said Supreme Court Judge UU Lalit on Friday.
The apex court judge, who was speaking at the launch of the 26th edition of the book by Ratanlal and Dhirajlal on The Law of Evidence, stated that except for three amendments to take care of dowry-related offences, sexual offences and technological advancements, the Indian Evidence Act of 1872 is primarily the same and is a “brilliant piece of work”.
“Evidence act is primarily is just what we have received a 150 years ago and it's a brilliant piece of work,” he said.
“Barring three sets of amendments, we still have the original text… The law of evidence has stood the test of time and hats off to the author to drafted the original evidence act,” the judge added.
Supreme Court judges Justice V Ramasubramanian and MM Sundresh and Madras High Court Judge Justice PN Prakash were the guests of honour at the virtual book launch.
Justice Lalit also highlighted with the changing times, the expert opinion based on fingerprints, which was earlier considered as opinion evidence, has now become dependable science.
“See the changes in times. Expert evidence... we always say the classical test is expert is only an assisting evidence and ultimately everything has to be taken note of and relied upon and the assessment has to be made by the principal judge himself. (That) It is only an opinion evidence. But with the passage of time, certain areas like fingerprint experts have now taken the level of a science which is dependable science and is not just an opinion evidence alone. The courts rely heavily on the opinion of fingerprint expert if that opinion otherwise is supposed to be without any blemish,” said the judge.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)