http://JUDIS.NIC.IN SUPREME COURT OF INDIA Page 1 of 7
PETITIONER: BAKHSHISH SINGH
Vs.
RESPONDENT: THE STATE OF PUNJAB
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 17/09/1957
BENCH: KAPUR, J.L. BENCH: KAPUR, J.L. SINHA, BHUVNESHWAR P. MENON, P. GOVINDA
CITATION: 1957 AIR 904 1958 SCR 409
ACT: Criminal law-Dying declaration-Scope of -Recording statement in Urdu, while deceased spoke in Punjabi-Reliability Discre- tion of the prosecutor in calling witnesses-Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (1 Of 1872), S. 22 (1).
HEADNOTE: The appellant was convicted for murder on the basis inter alia of the dying declaration of the deceased. The Sessions Court rejected it on the ground that though the deceased gave the narrative of events in Punjabi the statement was taken down in Urdu. Held, that in view of the fact that in the Punjab the lan- guage used in the subordinate courts and by the Police for recording statements has always been Urdu, the recording of dying declarations in Urdu cannot be a ground for saying that the statement does not correctly reproduce what was stated by the declarant. Accordingly, the dying declaration should not have been rejected. The dying declaration in the instant case was a long docu- ment containing a narrative of a large number of incidents which happened before the actual assault, which was more i...