ADMISSIBILITY OF EVIDENCE IN LIGHT OF AARUSHI TALWAR

Abstract

The Indian Evidence Act provides the rules of evidence and the admissibility of various documents and statements before the courts of law. The criminal justice is based on the presumption of the innocence of the accused and that the guilt must be proved beyond reasonable doubt. Thus, until all the charges against the accused are not proved completely, on the basis of clear, credible evidence, the accused cannot be convicted and punished for the crime. Legal proof is essential and mere suspicion, no matter how strong it is, cannot form ground for conviction. The standard of proof is graver for graver offences. High probability of guilt and no reasonable possibility of innocence is the test of guilt. 

Evidence can be classified into direct and circumstantial evidence. Direct evidence is that which expressly goes to the point in question and proves the same, without deductive reasoning or inference. 

Circumstantial evidence is also known as indirect evidence. Sir James Stephen described circumstantial evidence as facts relevant to the facts in issue. He observed that, “Facts relevant to the issue are facts from the existence of which inferences as to the existence of the facts in issue may be drawn. A fact is relevant to another fact when the existence of the one can be shown to be the cause or one of the causes, or the effect or one of the effects, of the existence of the other, or when the existence of the one, either alone or together with other facts, renders the existence of the other highly probable, or improbable, according to the common course of events.”