FORENSIC SCIENCE :- PROJECT REPORT

PROJECT REPORT
ON
Examination,
Examination-in-chief, Cross
examination, Re-examination

SUBMITTED TO : SUBMITTED BY:

DR. AJAY RANGA AKHIL NEGI (127/16)

UILS B.COM LL.B (HONS.) 5TH YEAR

PANJAB UNIVERSITY 9TH SEMESTER, UILS

PANJAB UNIVERSITY

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I, Akhil Negi take this opportunity to express my profound gratitude and deep
regards to the guide of this project, Dr. Ajay Ranga for his exemplary guidance,
monitoring, and constant encouragement throughout the course of this research
project. The blessing, help and guidance given by him time to time shall carry me a
long way in the journey of life on which I am about to embark.

I also take this opportunity to express a deep sense of gratitude to the faculty of
University Institute of Legal Studies, Panjab University for their cordial
support, valuable information and guidance, which helped me in completing this
task.

Lastly, I would like to thank Almighty, my parents and brother for their constant
encouragement without which this project would not be possible.

(AKHIL NEGI)

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SR.NO. PARTICULARS PAGE NO.

1. INTRODUCTION 4-5

2. EXAMINATION 6-7

3. EXAMINATION-IN-CHIEF 8-9

4. CROSS-EXAMINATION 10-11

5. RE-EXAMINATION 12-13

6. CONCLUSION 14

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY 15

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INTRODUCTION
Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application
of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—
during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible
evidence and criminal procedure.

Forensic scientists collect, preserve, and analyze scientific evidence during the
course of an investigation. While some forensic scientists travel to the scene of the
crime to collect the evidence themselves, others occupy a laboratory role,
performing analysis on objects brought to them by other individuals.

In addition to their laboratory role, forensic scientists testify as expert witnesses in

both criminal and civil cases and can work for either the prosecution or the
defense. While any field could technically be forensic, certain sections have
developed over time to encompass the majority of forensically related
cases. Forensic science is a combination of two different Latin words: forensis and
science. The former, forensic, relates to a discussion or examination performed in
public. Because trials in the ancient world were typically held in public, it carries a
strong judicial connotation. The second is science, which is derived from the Latin
word for 'knowledge' and is today closely tied to the scientific method, a
systematic way of acquiring knowledge. Taken together, then, forensic science can
be seen as the use of the scientific methods and processes in crime solving.

DEVELOPMENT OF FORENSIC SCIENCE:-

In 16th-century Europe, medical practitioners in army and university settings

began to gather information on the cause and manner of death. Ambroise Paré, a
French army surgeon, systematically studied the effects of violent death on internal
organs.[17][18] Two Italian surgeons, Fortunato Fidelis and Paolo Zacchia, laid the
foundation of modern pathology by studying changes that occurred in the structure
of the body as the result of disease. In the late 18th century, writings on these

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topics began to appear. These included A Treatise on Forensic Medicine and

Public Health by the French physician Francois Immanuele Fodéré and The
Complete System of Police Medicine by the German medical expert Johann Peter
Frank.

As the rational values of the Enlightenment era increasingly permeated society in

the 18th century, criminal investigation became a more evidence-based, rational
procedure − the use of torture to force confessions was curtailed, and belief in
witchcraft and other powers of the occult largely ceased to influence the court's
decisions. Two examples of English forensic science in individual legal
proceedings demonstrate the increasing use of logic and procedure in criminal
investigations at the time. In 1784, in Lancaster, John Toms was tried and
convicted for murdering Edward Culshaw with a pistol. When the dead body of
Culshaw was examined, a pistol wad (crushed paper used to secure powder and
balls in the muzzle) found in his head wound matched perfectly with a torn
newspaper found in Toms's pocket, leading to the conviction.[22]

In Warwick 1816, a farm laborer was tried and convicted of the murder of a young
maidservant. She had been drowned in a shallow pool and bore the marks of
violent assault. The police found footprints and an impression from corduroy cloth
with a sewn patch in the damp earth near the pool. There were also scattered grains
of wheat and chaff. The breeches of a farm labourer who had been threshing wheat
nearby were examined and corresponded exactly to the impression in the earth near
the pool.[23]

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 EXAMINATION:-

Part III , Chapter X, Section 135 to Section 166 of The Indian Evidence Act Deals
with the Provisions of Examination of witnesses .

1) Order of Production and Examination of Witness (Section 135)

The order in which witness are produced and examined shall be regulated by the
law and practice for the time being relating to civil and criminal procedure
respectively, and in the absence of any such law, by the discretion of the Court.

2) Judge to decide as to admissibility of evidence (Section 136)

When either party proposes to give evidence of any fact, the Judge may ask
the party proposing to give the evidence in what manner the alleged fact, if proved,
would be relevant; and the Judge shall admit the evidence if he thinks that the fact,
if proved, would be relevant, and not otherwise.

If the fact proposed to be proved is one of which evidence is admissible only

upon proof of some other fact, such last-mentioned fact must be proved before
evidence is given of the fact first mentioned, unless the party undertakes to give
proof of such fact and the Court is satisfied with such undertaking.

If the relevancy of the alleged fact depends upon another alleged fact being
first proved, the Judge may, in his discretion, either permit evidence of the first fact
to be given before the second fact is proved or acquire evidence to be given of the
second fact before evidence is given of the first fact.

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Illustrations:-
(a) It is proposed to prove a statement about a relevant fact by a person alleged
to be dead, which statement is relevant under section 32. The fact that the person is
dead must be proved by the person proposing to prove the statement, before
evidence is given of the statement.

(b) It is proposed to prove, by a copy, the contents of a document said to be lost.

The fact that the original is lost must be proved by the person proposing to produce
the copy, before the copy is produced.

(c) A is accused of receiving stolen property knowing it to have been stolen. It is

proposed to prove that he denied the possession of the property. The relevancy of
the denial depends on the identity of the property. The Court may, in its discretion,
either require the property to be identified before the denial of the possession is
proved, or permit the denial of the possession to be proved before the property is
identified.

(d) It is proposed to prove a fact (A) which is said to have been the cause or
effect of a fact in issue. There are several intermediate facts (B, C and D) which
must be shown to exist before the fact (A) can be regarded as the cause or effect of
the fact in issue. The Court may either permit A to be proved before B, C or D is
proved, or may require proof of B, C and D before permitting proof of A.

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 Examination-in-Chief:-
According to Section 137 of the Indian Evidence Act,1872 the
examination of a witness, by the party who calls him, shall be called his
examination-in-chief. This is also called as examination.

Every witness is first examined by the party who has called him, this
process called his examination-in-chief. Section 138 provides Witnesses
shall be first examined-in-chief then, if the adverse party so desires cross-
examined and then if the party calling him so desires. re-examined.

 Object / Purpose of Examination-in-chief :

The object / purpose behind conducting the examination-in-

chief is to make the witness depose to what he has been called by the
party calling him to prove. In other words, the object of his
examination is to get him from the witness all material facts within his
knowledge relating to the party's case. It must be confined to the
relevant fact and no leading questions can be asked. except with the
permission of the Court.
The court shall permit leading questions to be asked as to matters
which.
It should be noted that in examination-in-chief, the lawyer
conducting are introductory or undisputed,or which have in its
opinion, been already sufficiently proved.

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 Limit:

In Examination-in chief no leading questions can be put

except in certain special cases. Leading question is one , which
suggests the answer. For ex:-“ Did you see X striking Y with a stick
on a certain afternoon” is a leading question, as that suggest the
answer “yes”. I t cannot therefore, be put to the witness. The proper
forms of the question in a case of an assault are:-“When did this
incident occur? Where were you at the time? What did you notice?
And so on. In that case the witness will narrate the whole incident of
X striking Y as he saw it .Only relevant questions should be asked the
examination of the witness, the lawyer should understand the nature
and temperament of the witness and ask such questions which do not
irritate the witness. The witness should be asked to answer calmly
answer comfortably, and in his own manner as he likes to express in
his own words.

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 Cross-examination :-
According to Section 137, para 2 of the Indian Evidence Act,1872 : The
examination of a witness by the adverse party shall be called his cross-examination
. Cross-examination considered most powerful weapon. According to Philip
Wendell, "Cross-Examination is double-edged weapon, if you know how to wield,
it helps to cut enemy's neck Otherwise, it cuts own hands"

 Limit:-
It should be remembered that the witnesses must speak to facts and not to
opinions inference or beliefs. A witness may be cross-examined as to previous
statements made by him in writing or reduced into writing. Leading questions may
be asked.

 Object:-
The object of the cross examination is to test the truth of statement
made by witness, to see how far is memory is reliable or what powers of
observation possesses whether he is partial or impartial, etc ; in short it is an
attempt to break down a witness or to show that his statement can not be relied
upon. The object and scope of cross-examination is twofold to weaken qualify or
destroy the case of the opponent; and to establish the party's own case by means of
his opponents witnesses . With this view the witness may be asked not only as
facts in issue or directly relevant thereto , but all question

(1) tending to test his means of knowledge,

(2) tending to expose the error, of omission, contradictions and improbabilities in

the testimony or

(3) tending to impeach his credit.

The object of cross examination are to a impeach the

accuracy, credibility and general value of the evidence given in chief ; to sift the

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facts already stated by the witness, to detect and and expose discrepancies or to
elicit suppressed facts which will support the case of cross examination of party.

 Case Law :
 Sukhawant Singh v. State of U.P AIR 1995 SC 1601

In this case the Supreme Court has held that a witness

cannot be thrown open to cross-examination unless he is first
examined-in-chief. Where the prosecution did not examine its
witness and offered him to be cross examined, it was held that this
amounted to abandoning one's own witness, there cannot be any
cross-examination without the foundation of examine-in-chief.

 Sanjay v. State of Maharashtra

The Bombay High Court in one of its recent judgements has
reiterated that in certain cases the cross-examination cannot be limited to
the contents of the Examination-in-Chief.

The Court added that it may go beyond Examination-in-Chief as the

purpose of the cross-examination is to test the veracity or impeach the
credit of the witnesses.

 Ravinder Kumar Sarma v. State of Assam, (1999) 7 SCC 435

The appellant sued two police officers for damages for malicious
prosecution. In cross-examination the appellant put questions in that regard
to one of them who denied the allegation that he demanded a bribe. He did
not put the suggestion to the other police officer. It was held that the
appellant had not properly substantiated his allegations.

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 Re-Examination :-
According to Section 137, para 3 of the India evidence Act 1827 :The
examination of a witness, subsequent to the cross examination by the party who
called him , shall be called his re-examination.

 Purpose / Object of re-examination :-

The purpose / object of re-examination is to afford to the party

calling a witness an opportunity of filing in lacuna or explaining the
consistencies which the cross-examination has observed. in the
examination-in-chief of the witness. It is accordingly confined to the
explanation of matter refereed to in cross-examination. It should not
introduce any new matter unless the court permits; and if such permission is
given, the adverse party may further cross examine upon that matter.

 Limit :-

The re-examination shall be directed to the explanation of matters

referred to in cross-examination, and if new matter by permission of the
Court, introduced in re-examination, the adverse party may further cross-
examine upon that matter.

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 Leading Questions should not be asked in re-

examination :-

According to Section 142 of the Indian Evidence Act , leading

questions should not be asked in examination-in-chief or in re-examination,
if they are objected by the opposite party. In case the opposite party objects,
the court can decide the matter and may, in its direction either permits or
disallow it.
The Court that that it shall permit leading questions as to the matters
which are introductory or undisputed, or which have, in the opinion of the
Court, been already sufficiently proved to the satisfaction of the court

Case Law:-
K.K.Velusamy v. N.Palanisamy on 7 April, 2010

It is now well settled that the power to recall any witness under Order 18
Rule 17 CPC can be exercised by the Court either on its own motion or on
an application filed by any of the parties to the suit, but as indicated
hereinabove, such power is to be invoked not to fill up the lacunae in the
evidence of the witness which has already been recorded but to clear any
ambiguity that may have arisen during the course of his examination.

Of course, if the evidence on re-examination of a witness has a bearing on

the ultimate decision of the suit, it is always within the discretion of the trial Court
to permit recall of such a witness for re-examination -in-chief with permission to
the defendants to cross-examine the witness thereafter. There is nothing to
indicate that such is the situation in the present case."

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 CONCLUSION

Forensic science plays a remarkable role in guarding safety of each

individual and also in ensuring that any accused is not unjustly condemned.
Instances may be legion, but a single illustration would be sufficient at this
junction: a man may die of coronary thrombosis while walking on a road and
subsequently be run over by a vehicle and the driver charged with ‘culpable
homicide not amounting to murder

Examination of witnesses is very important for any case whether it belongs

to the civil or criminal nature and both the procedural law explain the
examination of witnesses. Section 135 to 166 of Indian Evidence
Act explain the examination of witnesses in which act cover all the things,
like who can first examine the witnesses during the examination of witnesses
and what are the relevant facts that are accepted during the examination of
witnesses and what are the questions asked by an advocate during the cross-
examination of witnesses and what questions are not asked during the cross-
examination and also tells the power of judges during the examination of
witnesses and at last give the provision related to the power of the jury and
assessors to asked the question during the examination of witnesses.
Effective cross-examination, re-examination can make the difference
between winning and losing a trial.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

 BOOKS:-
 Ganguly’s Medical Jurisprudence & Toxicology, Dwivedi Law House,

Allahabad

 Vij Krishan, “Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Principles and Practice”,

Reed Elsevier India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi

 Vepa P Sarathi, Law of Evidence, Eastern Book Company, Lucknow

 The Indian Evidence Act, 1872

 WEBSITES:-

 http://www.lawyersclubindia.com/articles/Inquest-report-Object-and-scope-

1234.asp#.Vg_8Y-yqqko Last visited 12.10.2015 at 11:00 PM

 https://indiankanoon.org/docfragment/1875214/?formInput=re-

examination%20of%20witness

 https://www.lawteacher.net/law-help/advocacy/re-examination.php

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