Circumstantial Evidence In Criminal Justice Case Study

Children have a right to get justice as such their evidence is very essential to protect their rights and interests guaranteed by law, against the offender. Earlier, the law in the United States, U.K, Australia and India has taken restrictive use of evidence of child witnesses and regarded them inherently not reliable. When children have been permitted to testify, they have done so on the basis of what is told to them by somebody else. These suspicions about the reliability of child witnesses are seen in the competency requirement and the requirement for corroboration still in existence in various countries. According to the well known authority on law of evidence in Britain Sir John Smith, a person is incompetent if because of

The testimony of a victim of sexual assault stands at par with the testimony of the injured witness. In fact, the deposition of the victim of sex offence is entitled to great weight. But unlike the case of physical assault, in sex offence, given the very nature of the offence, corroboration by eye witness moreover of an independent witness cannot be expected. In Rafiq v. State of U.P., it was observed that, need for corroboration of testimony of prosecutrix and presence of injury on her person depends on the facts and circumstances of each case. Inferences regarding rape can be drawn from circumstantial

State of Maharashtra, a head constable raped a tribal girl, Mathura in police station-even as her relatives and other were waiting outside the police station. The conviction of the accused by the High Court was set aside in appeal by the Supreme Court, observing that the onus is always on the prosecution to prove affirmatively each ingredient of the offence it seeks to establish. The suggestion that consent was lacking in the present case was negative because of absence of any evidence of resistance or injury on her person. When it was said that consent may have been obtained by putting her in fear of death or hurt, and that may be the reason for the absence of injury, it was said that it must be shown that she must have been put in such fear and that there was no such finding. Five leading jurists wrote to the Chief Justice of India pointing out miscarriage of justice, which led to public commotion and criticism. It was pointed out that the principle of corroboration has been stretched to absurd length by the Court as to result in miscarriage of justice. It was said that a young woman called to police station after sunset in defiance of prohibition could not have gone there, to indulge in sex with unknown new constable when her parents and husband waiting outside the police station for her to return. The rule of corroboration as developed in the case of rape has also been extended to the victim’s testimony in other cases of sexual abuse including unnatural