Sir John Woodroffe and Syed Amir Ali's Law of Evidence (4 Volume Set)

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Description
"My Evidence Bill would be a very short one; it would consist of one rule, to this effect: All rules of evidence are hereby abolished."
These words of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, underlined the task of simplifying the law of evidence undertaken by its author so as to make it suitable for developing legal systems across the Common Law countries. And the codification of the Indian Evidence Act was so crisp that it has been described as a "masterpiece of compression ".3
But in today's time, with the huge pendency of cases in India, there is a need to re-build the edifice around the basic principles enshrined in the codified Law of Evidence. Experience shows that this masterpiece of compression has today become a tool in the hands of people with means to drag on an adverse litigation for years and years, so much so that common people have indeed started losing faith in the legal system. Not that the Law of Evidence in its present form has lost its relevance or has become otiose. It simply needs to be decked up with the modern day needs with smart litigants always creating documents in support of their case. In this process, the tackling of new form of documents known as 'electronic documents' is also important, with technology in the form of emails and sms creeping into the judicial records as forms of evidence. In this endeavour, the effort of the court should not only be confined to harping on the "negative rules declaring what, as the expression runs, is not evidence", but also collecting positive evidence which is somewhat hesitant but otherwise available and apparent. This bestows a greater responsibility upon the courts of taking judicial notice of facts as prescribed in them under S. 56 of the Act, on the basis of pleadings. There are obviously very many facts which will be judicially noticed, and the process is capable of saving a great deal of time which would otherwise be spent in calling the substantial volumes of evidence often curiously necessary to prove the most self-evident facts.4 Such judicial notice of facts can expedite the disposal of cases by removing the need of parties being subjected to the proof of facts which are otherwise self-evident or established even without evidence.
With this background, the proposal to revise the 19th Edition of this monumental work done by Sir John Woodroffe and Syed Amir Ali was not just a challenge but also an opportunity to throw fresh light on the subject keeping in mind the present context and the advancement of technology which regularly changes the contours of evidence, for which we are indeed thankful to the publishers.
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Contents
Volume 1
Chapter 1 : Introduction
Chapter 2 : Preface to the Act
Part I - Relevancy of Facts
Chapter 3 : Preliminary
Chapter 4 : Of the Relevancy of Facts
Chapter 5 : Admissions
Volume 2
Chapter 6 : Statements by Persons who cannot be Called as Witnesses
Part II : On Proof
Chapter 7 : On Proof
Chapter 8 : Facts which need not be proved
Chapter 9 : Of Oral Evidence
Chapter 10.  Of Documentary Evidence
Volume 3
Chapter 11 : Of the Exclusion of Oral or Documentary Evidence
Chapter 12 : Of the Burden of Proof
Volume 4
Chapter 13 : Estoppel
Chapter 14 : Of Witnesses
Chapter 15 : Of the Examinatioin of Witnesses
Chapter 16 : Of Improper Admission and Rejection of Evidence
Appendices
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Author's Details
B.M. Prasad, B.Sc, BL, Advocate, Supreme Court of India Former Member, Bihar Superior Judicial Service Former Government Pleader
Manish Mohan, B.A. (Hons.) LL.B. Diploma in Cyber Law, Advocate, Supreme Court of India
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