Summary
The Supreme Court affirmed the appellant’s murder conviction and life sentence on two consistent dying declarations identifying him as the person who poured kerosene and set the deceased alight. Medical evidence supported her fitness to make the declaration. A reliable dying declaration can sustain conviction without mandatory corroboration, but courts must scrutinize it cautiously for fitness, voluntariness and possible tutoring. No perversity justified disturbing the concurrent findings. The request concerning remission was left to the Government without judicial relief.
Issues
- Whether the consistent dying declarations reliably sustained the murder conviction despite the defence objections and minor discrepancies.
Held
- A dying declaration about the cause or circumstances of death is an exception to hearsay exclusion. It may alone sustain conviction if it inspires confidence and was made in a fit state of mind without tutoring or prompting. Suspicion about its correctness or genuineness requires supporting evidence; corroboration is not an inflexible requirement in every case. (¶¶ 9, 10, 11, 12)
- Both declarations consistently identified the appellant and described his act. The magistrate recorded the declaration after medical fitness certification, and the doctor confirmed the endorsement. Hostility of some witnesses and minor discrepancies did not undermine the reliable declarations or the concurrent findings. (¶¶ 8, 13, 14, 15)
- Special-leave interference with concurrent findings requires a material flaw such as absence of evidence, perversity, reliance on inadmissible material or disregard of vital defence-favouring evidence. None was established here. (¶¶ 14, 15)
- The appellant’s poverty, family circumstances and his own burns were advanced in seeking sympathetic consideration for remission. The Court granted no relief on that ground and left any representation for the Government to consider. (¶¶ 16, 17)
Result
Appeal dismissed; murder conviction and life sentence affirmed. No remission relief granted; any representation remained for Government consideration.