{"id":270427,"date":"2002-08-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2002-08-26T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.legalindia.com\/judgments\/laxman-vs-state-of-maharashtra-on-27-august-2002"},"modified":"2017-08-07T15:15:55","modified_gmt":"2017-08-07T09:45:55","slug":"laxman-vs-state-of-maharashtra-on-27-august-2002","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.legalindia.com\/judgments\/laxman-vs-state-of-maharashtra-on-27-august-2002","title":{"rendered":"Laxman vs State Of Maharashtra on 27 August, 2002"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"docsource_main\">Supreme Court of India<\/div>\n<div class=\"doc_title\">Laxman vs State Of Maharashtra on 27 August, 2002<\/div>\n<div class=\"doc_bench\">Bench: G.B. Pattanaik (J), Shah, M.B. (J), Raju, Doraiswamy (J), Variava, S.N. (J), Dharmadhikari, D.M. (J)<\/div>\n<pre id=\"pre_1\">           CASE NO.:\nAppeal (crl.)  608 of 2001\n\nPETITIONER:\nLAXMAN\n\nRESPONDENT:\nSTATE OF MAHARASHTRA\n\nDATE OF JUDGMENT: 27\/08\/2002\n\nBENCH:\nG.B. PATTANAIK &amp;  M.B. SHAH &amp; DORAISWAMY RAJU &amp; S.N. VARIAVA &amp; D.M.\nDHARMADHIKARI\n\nJUDGMENT:\n<\/pre>\n<p id=\"p_1\">JUDGMENT<\/p>\n<p>2002 ( 1 )   Suppl.  SCR  697<\/p>\n<p>The Judgment of the Court was delivered by<\/p>\n<p>PATTANAIK, J. In this Criminal Appeal, the conviction of the accused<br \/>\nappellant is based upon the dying declaration of the deceased which was<br \/>\nrecorded by the judicial magistrate (P.W.4). The learned sessions Judge as<br \/>\nwell as the High Court held the dying declaration made by the deceased to<br \/>\nbe truthful, voluntary and trustworthy. The magistrate in his evidence had<br \/>\nstated that he had contacted the patient through the medical officer on<br \/>\nduty and after putting some questions to the patient to find out whether<br \/>\nshe was able to make the statement; whether she was set on fire; whether<br \/>\nshe was conscious and able to make the statement and on being satisfied he<br \/>\nrecorded the statement of the deceased. There was a certificate of the<br \/>\ndoctor which indicates that the patient was conscious. The high Court on<br \/>\nconsideration of the evidence of the magistrate as well as on the<br \/>\ncertificate of the doctor on the dying declaration recorded by the<br \/>\nmagistrate together with other circumstances on record came to the<br \/>\nconclusion that the deceased Chandrakala was physically and mentally fit<br \/>\nand as such the dying declaration can be relied upon. When the appeal<br \/>\nagainst the judgment of the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court was<br \/>\nplaced before a three Judges bench of this court, the counsel for the<br \/>\nappellant relied upon the decision of this court in the case of <a href=\"\/doc\/158682633\/\" id=\"a_1\">Paparambaka<br \/>\nRosamma and Ors. v. State of Andhra Pradesh<\/a>, [1999] 7 SCC 695 and contended<br \/>\nthat since the certification of the doctor was not to the effect that the<br \/>\npatient was in a fit state of mind to make the statement, the dying<br \/>\ndeclaration could not have been accepted by the court to form the sole<br \/>\nbasis of conviction. On behalf of the counsel appearing for the State<br \/>\nanother three Judges bench decision of this court in the case of <a href=\"\/doc\/1207713\/\" id=\"a_1\">Koli<br \/>\nChunilal Savji and Anr. v. State of Gujarat<\/a>, [1999] 9 SCC 562 was relied<br \/>\nupon wherein this court has held that if the materials on record indicate<br \/>\nthat the deceased was fully conscious and was capable of making a<br \/>\nstatement, the dying declaration of the deceased thus recorded cannot be<br \/>\nignored merely because the doctor had not made the endorsement that the<br \/>\ndeceased was in a fit state of mind to make the statement in question.<br \/>\nSince the two aforesaid decisions expressed by two benches of three learned<br \/>\nJudges was somewhat contradictory the bench by order dated 27.7.2002<br \/>\nreferred the question to the Constitution Bench.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"p_1\">At the outset we make it clear that we are only resolving the so-called<br \/>\nconflict between the aforesaid three Judges bench decision of this court,<br \/>\nwhere-after the criminal appeal will be placed before the bench presided<br \/>\nover by Justice M.B. Shah who had referred the matter to the Constitution<br \/>\nBench. We are, therefore, refraining from examining the evidence on record<br \/>\nto come to a conclusion one way or the other and we are restricting our<br \/>\nconsiderations to the correctness of the two decisions referred to supra.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"p_2\">The juristic theory regarding acceptability of a dying declaration is that<br \/>\nsuch declaration is made in extremity, when the party is at the point of<br \/>\ndeath and when every hope of this world is gone, when every motive to<br \/>\nfalsehood is silenced, and the man is induced by the most powerful<br \/>\nconsideration to speak only the truth. Notwithstanding the same, great<br \/>\ncaution must be exercised in considering the weight to be given to this<br \/>\nspecies of evidence on account of the existence of many circumstances which<br \/>\nmay affect their truth. The situation in which a man is on death bed is so<br \/>\nsolemn and serene, is the reason in law to accept the veracity of his<br \/>\nstatement. It is for this reason the requirements of oath and cross-<br \/>\nexamination are dispensed with. Since the accused has no power of cross-<br \/>\nexamination, the court insist that the dying declaration should be of such<br \/>\na nature as to inspire full confidence of the court in its truthfulness and<br \/>\ncorrectness. The court, however has to always be on guard to see that the<br \/>\nstatement of the deceased was not as a result of either tutoring or<br \/>\nprompting or a product of imagination. The court also must further decide<br \/>\nthat the deceased was in a fit state of mind and had the opportunity to<br \/>\nobserve and identify the assailant. Normally, therefore, the court in order<br \/>\nto satisfy whether the deceased was in a fit mental condition to make the<br \/>\ndying declaration look up to the medical opinion. But where the<br \/>\neyewitnesses state that the deceased was in a fit and conscious state to<br \/>\nmake the declaration, the medical opinion will not prevail, nor can it be<br \/>\nsaid that since there is no certification of the doctor as to the fitness<br \/>\nof the mind of the declarant, the dying declaration is not acceptable. A<br \/>\ndying declaration can be oral or in writing and in any adequate method of<br \/>\ncommunication whether by words or by signs or otherwise will suffice<br \/>\nprovided the indication is positive and definite. In most cases, however,<br \/>\nsuch statements are made orally before death ensues and is reduced to<br \/>\nwriting by someone like a magistrate or a doctor or a police officer. When<br \/>\nit is recorded, no oath is necessary nor is the presence of a magistrate is<br \/>\nabsolutely necessary, although to assure authenticity it is usual to call a<br \/>\nmagistrate, if available for recording the statement of a man about to die.<br \/>\nThere is no requirement of law that a dying declaration must necessarily be<br \/>\nmade to a magistrate and when such statement is recorded by a magistrate<br \/>\nthere is no specified statutory form for such recording. Consequently, what<br \/>\nevidential value or weight has to be attached to such statement necessarily<br \/>\ndepends on the facts and circumstances of each particular case. What is<br \/>\nessentially required is that the person who records a dying declaration<br \/>\nmust be satisfied that the deceased was in a fit state of mind. Where it is<br \/>\nproved by the testimony of the magistrate that the declarant was fit to<br \/>\nmake the statement even without examination by the doctor the declaration<br \/>\ncan be acted upon provided the court ultimately holds the same to be<br \/>\nvoluntary and truthful. A certification by the doctor is essentially a rule<br \/>\nof caution and therefore the voluntary and truthful nature of the<br \/>\ndeclaration can be established otherwise.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"p_3\">Bearing in mind the aforesaid principle, let us now examine the two<br \/>\ndecisions of the court which persuaded the bench to make the reference to<br \/>\nthe Constitution Bench. <a href=\"\/doc\/158682633\/\" id=\"a_2\">In Paparambaka Rosamma and Ors. v. State of Andhra<br \/>\nPradesh<\/a>, [1999] 7 SCC 695 the dying declaration in question had been<br \/>\nrecorded by a judicial magistrate and the magistrate had made a note that<br \/>\non the basis of answers elicited from the declarant to the questions put he<br \/>\nwas satisfied that the deceased is in a fit disposing state of mind to make<br \/>\na declaration. Doctor had appended a certificate to the effect that the<br \/>\npatient was conscious while recording the statement, yet the court came to<br \/>\nthe conclusion that it would not be safe to accept the dying declaration as<br \/>\ntrue and genuine and was made when the injured was in a fit state of mind<br \/>\nsince the certificate of the doctor was only to the effect that the patient<br \/>\nis conscious while recording the statement. Apart from the aforesaid<br \/>\nconclusion in law the court also had found serious lacunae and ultimately<br \/>\ndid not accept the dying declaration recorded by the magistrate. In the<br \/>\nlatter decision of this court in <a href=\"\/doc\/1207713\/\" id=\"a_3\">Koli Chunilal Savji and Anr. v. State of<br \/>\nGujarat<\/a>, [1999] 9 SCC 562 it was held that the ultimate test is whether the<br \/>\ndying declaration can be held to be a truthful one and voluntarily given.<br \/>\nIt was further held that before recording the declaration the officer<br \/>\nconcerned must find that the declarant was in a fit condition to make the<br \/>\nstatement in question. The court relied upon the earlier decision. <a href=\"\/doc\/1919003\/\" id=\"a_4\">In Ravi<br \/>\nChander v. State of Punjab<\/a>, [1998] 9 SCC 303 wherein it had been observed<br \/>\nthat for not examining by the doctor the dying declaration recorded by the<br \/>\nexecutive magistrate and the dying declaration orally made need not be<br \/>\ndoubted. The magistrate being a disinterested witness and is a responsible<br \/>\nofficer and there being no circumstances or material to suspect that the<br \/>\nmagistrate had any animus against the accused or was in any way interested<br \/>\nfor fabricating a dying declaration, question of doubt on the declaration,<br \/>\nrecorded by the magistrate does not arise.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"p_4\">The court also in the aforesaid case relied upon the decision of this court<br \/>\nin <a href=\"\/doc\/811055\/\" id=\"a_5\">Harjeet Kaur v. State of Punjab<\/a>, [1999] 6 SCC 545 case wherein the<br \/>\nmagistrate in his evidence had stated that he had ascertained from the<br \/>\ndoctor whether she was in a fit condition to make a statement and obtained<br \/>\nan endorsement to that effect and merely because an endorsement was made<br \/>\nnot on the declaration but on the application would not render the dying<br \/>\ndeclaration suspicious in any manner. For the reasons already indicated<br \/>\nearlier, we have no hesitation in coming to the conclusion that the<br \/>\nobservations of this court in <a href=\"\/doc\/158682633\/\" id=\"a_6\">Paparambaka Rosamma and Ors. v. State of<br \/>\nAndhra Pradesh<\/a>, [1999] 7 SCC 695 to the effect that &#8220;in the absence of a<br \/>\nmedical certification that the injured was in a fit state of mind at the<br \/>\ntime of making the declaration, it would be very much risky to accept the<br \/>\nsubjective satisfaction of a magistrate who opined that the injured was in<br \/>\na fit state of mind at the time of making a declaration&#8221; has been too<br \/>\nbroadly stated and is not the correct enunciation of law. It is indeed a<br \/>\nhyper-technical view that the certification of the doctor was to the effect<br \/>\nthat the patient is conscious and there was no certification that the<br \/>\npatient was in a fit state of mind specially when the magistrate<br \/>\ncategorically stated in his evidence indicating the questions he had put to<br \/>\nthe patient and from the answers elicited was satisfied that the patient<br \/>\nwas in a fit state of mind where-after he recorded the dying declaration.<br \/>\nTherefore, the judgment of this court in <a href=\"\/doc\/158682633\/\" id=\"a_7\">Paparambaka Rosamma and Ors. v.<br \/>\nState of Andhra Pradesh<\/a>, [1999] 7 SCC 695 must be held to be not correctly<br \/>\ndecided and we affirm the law laid down by this court in <a href=\"\/doc\/1207713\/\" id=\"a_8\">Koli Chunilal<br \/>\nSavji and Anr. v. State of Gujarat<\/a>, [1999] 9 SCC 562 case.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"p_5\">The records of the Criminal Appeal may now be placed before the bench<br \/>\npresided over by Shah, J from which court the reference has been made.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Supreme Court of India Laxman vs State Of Maharashtra on 27 August, 2002 Bench: G.B. Pattanaik (J), Shah, M.B. (J), Raju, Doraiswamy (J), Variava, S.N. (J), Dharmadhikari, D.M. (J) CASE NO.: Appeal (crl.) 608 of 2001 PETITIONER: LAXMAN RESPONDENT: STATE OF MAHARASHTRA DATE OF JUDGMENT: 27\/08\/2002 BENCH: G.B. PATTANAIK &amp; M.B. SHAH &amp; DORAISWAMY RAJU [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-270427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-supreme-court-of-india"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Laxman vs State Of Maharashtra on 27 August, 2002 - Free Judgements of Supreme Court &amp; High Court | Legal India<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.legalindia.com\/judgments\/laxman-vs-state-of-maharashtra-on-27-august-2002\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Laxman vs State Of Maharashtra on 27 August, 2002 - Free Judgements of Supreme Court &amp; 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