Section 32(1) talks about dying declaration in Indian Evidence Act,1872.It’s a statement made by a person who is dead or resulted in the cause of his death or which resulted in his death due to any circumstances of transaction i.e in cases in which the person’s death comes into question.Under Section 32(1) of the Act makes such statements relevant,whether the maker of the statement was or was not under the expectation of death at the time whey it was made.
Dying Declaration in Indian Evidence Act is an exception to the rule of Hearsay Evidence due to necessity and is admissible.
Under Section 32(1), following are the essentials:-
- Statement of a person who is dead
- Statement may be verbal written or by gestures
- Should relate to cause of death or circumstances of the transaction which resulted in death
- Expectation of death not necessary
- Statement relevant when cause of death is in question
Dying Declaration in Indian Evidence Act,1872 is considered as a substantive piece of evidence.To decide the reliability of Dying Declaration, following guidelines needs to be considered,they are:-
- It should be true and voluntary , conviction can be based on it without corroboration.
- It should not be tutored,prompted or imaginary.
- If suspicious , it should not be acted upon without corroboration.
- It Suffers from infirmity ,cannot form the basis of conviction.
- More than one statement, one first in point of time must be preferred.
From the point of view of the declarant,the Dying Declaration in evidence must be complete.If while making some statements he dies in the middle and the statement remains incomplete,it will not be relevant.