Sometimes we come across judgments by honorable courts that spring surprise on us. At first glance they appear incongruous, as if the rulings lack common sense. Take a closer look, and you begin to see that there is logic behind that such judgment. One such case at Kolkata High Court on Nov 24 hogs media limelight.
It’s about a woman who dies out of burn. She gives dying statement in Bengali, which is however recorded in English. When the case comes up for trial, it’s found there is no other evidence save the dying statement. Based on this, the lower court holds her husband guilty for the crime.
When he appeals to HC, the latter in its ruling makes the now-famous observation that since no other evidence is available, it cannot hold the husband guilty on the strength of a dying statement which ought to have been recorded in Bengali, but instead recorded in English. Apparently, the HC judges feel that there can always be a difference between an original statement and its translation, and so in absence of any other evidence, the dying statement alone cannot possibly be taken as clinching evidence against the husband.
If you’re with me, you may perhaps feel the judgment is right. However, there perhaps is an error in what the judges also say in the case (excerpted below from The Telegraph).
“A dying declaration should be taken in mother tongue as the expression of a dying person can be changed while translating the declaration into any other language,” a division bench of Justice P.N. Sinha and Justice P.S. Dutta said. Link
The Times of India reports almost in similar line (excerpted below):
The HC not only detected incongruity in the separate ‘dying declarations’ submitted by the doctors but also noted that the people do not speak in any other language but their mother tongue in their dying moments. Link
It can be argued that the judges have meant that dying statements in anything but mother tongue cannot be taken as evidence to prove guilt. In his blog-post, Anant Rangaswami has this to say (excerpts):
As I’m dying, I have to remember a language that I hardly speak?
And providentially at hand should be someone who can both understand AND write Tamil?
And If these two conditions are not met my murderer gets away scotfree?And the law is not an ass? Link
Well, Anant has a point, no doubt there. Any thought?
Leave a Reply