| Citation(s) |
|---|
| 1970 SLG 35 1970 SLD 35 = 1970 PLD 13 |
Supreme Court of Pakistan
Criminal Appeal No. 11-P of 1968, decision dated: 29thOctober 1969. (On appeal from the judgment and order of theHigh Court of West Pakistan, Peshawar Bench, Peshawar, datedthe 3rd November 1967, in Criminal Appeal No. 51 of 1967)
MUHAMMAD YAQUB ALI, SAJJAD AHMAD AND M. R. KHAN, JJ
Criminal Appeal No. 11-P of 1968, decision dated: 29thOctober 1969. (On appeal from the judgment and order of theHigh Court of West Pakistan, Peshawar Bench, Peshawar, datedthe 3rd November 1967, in Criminal Appeal No. 51 of 1967)
MUHAMMAD YAQUB ALI, SAJJAD AHMAD AND M. R. KHAN, JJ
TAWAIB KHAN AND anothervsTHE STATE
Law: Pakistan Penal Code (XLV of 1860)
Section: 302
Law: Evidence Act, (1 of 1872)
Section: 32
(a) Penal Code (XLV of 1860),S. 302---- Dying declarations have sanctity under law but no rigid rule can be laid down that person under immediate apprehension of death would utter nothing but truth---Dying declaration like statement of interested witness requires close scrutiny---Evidence Act (I of 1872), S. 32.The dying declarations of the deceased have a degree of sanctity under the law, being the statements of a dying man, on the belief that he being placed in a situation of immediate appre�hension of severance of his ties with the mundane affairs, he would not tell a lie and implicate innocent persons on false charges. But, in the matter of the administration of criminal justice, taking in view the present state of our society, the assess�ment of evidence, whether it is the statement of a witness or the statement of a person who is dead, is essentially an exercise of human to evaluate the evidence so as to find out what is true and what is false therein. In this effort, the case has to be considered in all its physical environments and circumstances to find out how far the evidence or its different parts fit in with the circumstances and possibilities that can be safely deduced in the case. In this country, the habit, unfortunately, is quite common, now judicially recognized, that people do add innocent persons along with the guilty to satisfy their sense of revenge and to put the other side to the utmost grief. It is difficult to lay down a rigid rule that a person who is injured and is under an apprehension of meeting his death, would suddenly be gifted, as if by a magic transformation, with a clean conscience and a purity of mind to shed all the age-old habits and deep�rooted rancours and enmities. Even, assuming that the pangs of conscience are there at the time to prohibit making of false charges, the question arises whether these pangs are strong enough to fortify him to resist the promptings and persuasions of his relations and others who may be surrounding him at the time and incite him to support the pattern of the charge which they have chosen to make against the accused persons, whether innocent or guilty? It is for this reason that a close…