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Dowry: dying declaration can be sole basis for conviction

New Delhi: In dowry cases, the trial court can convict the accused on the basis of the victim’s dying declaration if prosecution witnesses turn hostile, the Supreme Court has held.

A Bench consisting of Justices C.K. Thakker and Markandey Katju, quoting an earlier judgment, said: “Once the court is satisfied that the declaration was true and voluntary, undoubtedly, it can base its conviction without any further corroboration. It cannot be laid down as an absolute rule of law that the dying declaration cannot form the sole basis of conviction unless it is corroborated. The rule requiring corroboration is merely a rule of prudence.”

In the instant case, Rekha died of burns at her house in May 2001. Her husband, Vikas and his parents were cited as accused for an offence of dowry death. The sessions court awarded them life imprisonment.

On appeal, the Bombay High Court concluded that Rekha’s father Laxman had scant respect for truth and said “we are not inclined to accept any of his submissions favourable to the defence.” It confirmed the sentence notwithstanding the fact that Laxman turned hostile, denying the prosecution charge.

Dismissing the appeal by Vikas and others against this judgment, the apex court said: “The principle underlying admissibility of a dying declaration is reflected in the well-known maxim: Nemo moriturus praesumitur mentire, i.e. a man will not meet his Maker without any motive for telling a lie. Truth, said Mathew Arnold, sits upon the lips of a dying man.”

The Bench pointed out that a man in his deathbed would not tell lies. “It has been said that when a person is facing imminent death, when even a shadow of continuing in this world is practically over, every motive of falsehood vanishes.”

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