Ratanlal and Dhirajlal - The Law of Evidence (Hardbound)

.............................................................................................................................
Description
The Evidence Act had already reached its mid 40's when the first edition of this book was born in 1916. One hundred and five years and 25 editions have rolled by. The book has grown in age just as it has done in stature. The commentary has been molded, chiseled and reinvigorated over the years by some of the best legal minds in the country. Our task as editors was akin to restoring and updating an antique building, aided, no doubt, by the work of those who have preceded us. As Sir Isaac Newton said to Robert Hooke in 1675, "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants". In pursuing this task, we have attempted to weed out unnecessary precedents that have clouded and obscured the general principle of every provision. An attempt has been made to set out the legal position, notice contemporary developments and offer appropriate critiques. In updating this work, we have also cautiously borne in
mind the warning administered by Stephen: "I do not believe that one case in twenty of those which are reported (in the Indian reports] is at all worth reporting; and when we think what the High Courts are, it seems to me little less than monstrous to make every division bench into a little legislature, which is to be continually occupied in making binding precedents, with all of which every Court and Magistrate in the country is bound to be acquainted. Careful reports of great cases are perhaps the most instructive kind of legal literature; but I know nothing which so completely enervates the mind, and prevents it from regarding law as a whole, or as depending upon any principles at all, as the habit of continually dwelling upon and referring to minute decisions upon every petty question which occurs." The recent decision of the Supreme Court in Tofan Singh v State of Tamil Nadu,' has set at rest the raging controversy on the admissibility of confessions recorded by the officials of the Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), under the NDPS Act. The decision has, however, had the undesirable effect of equating the officers of the DRI into members of the police force, the latter being the intended group originally envisaged under the dragnet of section 25. We have also noticed the continuing interpretive issues plaguing section 65B of the Evidence Act, notwithstanding the attempt made by the Supreme Court in Arjun Panditrao Khotkar v Kailash
Kushanrao Gorantyal to settle the legal position. The "truth must triumph" doctrine propounded in Nandlal Wasudeo Badwaik v Lata Nandlal Badwaik has pitted the evidentiary rule of conclusive proof against the results obtained by DNA analysis. ..........................................................................................................................
Contents
Part I - Relevancy of Facts
    I. Preliminary
    II. Of The Relevancy of Facts
Part II - On Proof
    III. Facts which need not be proved
    IV. Of Oral Evidence
    V. Of Documentary Evidence
    VI. Of The Exclusion of Oral by Documentary Evidence
Part III - Production and Effect of Evidence
    VII. The Burden of Proof
    VIII. Estoppel
    IX. Of Witnesses
    X. Of The Examination of Witnesses
    XI. Of Improper Admission and Rejection of Evidence
Subject Index
.............................................................................................................................
Author Details
Ratanlal Ranchhoddas – B.A., LL.B., Advocate (O.S.), Bombay High Court
Dhirajlal Keshavlal Thakore – B.A., Of Linclon’s Inn, Barrister-at-Law
Foreword by
Justice V. Ramasubramanian, Judge, Supreme Court of India
Introduction by
Justice. P.N.Prakash, Judge, Madras High Court
N. Vijayaraghava & Shararth Chandran, Advocates, Madras High Court
.............................................................................................................................