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Evidence and its types

The Indian Evidence Act 1872 defines evidence as oral and documentary statements presented in court, including electronic records. Evidence is categorized into direct (primary) and indirect (hearsay) types, with primary evidence being the most credible. Additionally, real evidence can be presented through material objects, and the act outlines specific rules regarding the admissibility of different types of evidence.

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Evidence and its types

The Indian Evidence Act 1872 defines evidence as oral and documentary statements presented in court, including electronic records. Evidence is categorized into direct (primary) and indirect (hearsay) types, with primary evidence being the most credible. Additionally, real evidence can be presented through material objects, and the act outlines specific rules regarding the admissibility of different types of evidence.

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khyati
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Definition of evidence in the Indian Evidence Act

According to Section 3 of the Evidence Act 1872, evidence means and includes:

• All such statements which the court allows or needs to be presented before it by the
witnesses in connection to matters of fact under inquiry. These statements are termed
as oral evidence.
• All such documents including any electronics record, presented before the court for
inspection. These documents are termed as documentary evidence.

Types of Evidence
According to the definition given in the Indian Evidence Act, evidence can be divided into two
categories:

• Oral Evidence;
• Documentary Evidence.
It should be noted that evidence can be both oral and documentary and also, electronic records can
be presented in the court as evidence, which means that even in criminal cases, evidence can be
presented by way of electronic records. This shall include video-conferencing.

Oral and documentary evidence can be divided into two categories:

• Direct or primary;
• Indirect or hearsay or secondary.
There is also a category of real or material evidence, which is supplied by material objects for
inspection of the Court such as a stolen good or the weapon of offense.

Oral Evidence
Oral evidence renders to the evidence that is mainly words spoken by mouth. It is adequate to be
proved without the support of any documentary evidence, provided it has credibility.

Primary oral evidence is the evidence that has been personally heard or seen or gathered by the
senses of a witness. It is called direct evidence as defined by Section 60 of the Indian Evidence
Act.
Indirect or hearsay evidence is generally not admissible in a court of law as the person reporting
the facts is not the actual witness of the facts in issues. However, there are some exceptions made
in the case of hearsay evidence where it is admissible in a court of law. Section 32 and Section
33 of the Indian Evidence Act, states the exceptional cases of hearsay evidence.

Documentary Evidence
Documentary evidence is the evidence that mentions any issue described or expressed upon any
material by way of letters, figures or marks or by more than one of the ways which can be used for
recording the issue. Such evidence is presented in the form of a document to prove a disputed fact
in court.

Primary documentary evidence includes the evidence that shows the original documents as
mentioned in Section 62 of the Indian Evidence Act, whereas secondary documentary evidence is
the evidence that includes copies of documents that can be presented in the court under certain
circumstances or as mentioned in Section 63 and Section 65 of the Indian Evidence Act.

Direct or primary evidence


Direct Evidence is acknowledged as the most important evidence required for deciding the matter
in issue. Direct evidence directly proves a fact or disapproves of the fact by its virtue. In the case
of direct evidence, a particular fact is accepted directly without giving any reason to relate to the
fact. One does not even need to point out the illustration provided as the evidence given by the
witness in the court of law is the direct evidence which is sufficient enough to prove the matter as
against the testimony to a fact proposing guilt.

Also, at times the rule of best evidence plays an important part in upholding direct evidence in a
court of law. The rule of the best evidence is a rule of law that only includes the primary evidence
in itself. It states that if evidence such as a document or a recording is presented in the court then
only the original ones will be admissible unless there is a reason for not using the original one in
the court.

Indirect evidence
Indirect evidence is that evidence which proves the facts in question by giving other facts that are
indirect evidence and afterwards, proving their relevance to the issue. The deduction that can be
drawn is from such evidence by connecting a series of other facts to the facts in question. These
indirect facts must have been related to the facts in question and have a cause and effect connection.

Direct evidence is used in two senses:

• As against hearsay evidence


According to this opposition, direct evidence is the evidence given by a fact that is sensed by a
witness with his senses or an opinion held by the witness whereas hearsay evidence is the evidence
that what some other person has told the witness to have seen or heard by the other person. This
differentiation can be noticed in Section 60 of the Indian Evidence Act, where the word ‘direct’ is
used in contradistinction with the term ‘hearsay’ evidence.

• As against circumstantial evidence


Direct evidence is that evidence which goes expressly to the very issue in question and which, if
believed will prove the fact in question without needing any help from any reasoning for example
evidence such as the testimony of an eye-witness to murder, whereas circumstantial evidence will
not prove the issue in question but it ascertains the point only by inference or reasoning.

For example, the evidence of the fact that a person had a motive to murder another individual and
at the time of the murder the person was seen with a dagger, going towards the place of the
murdered individual and shortly afterwards, was seen returning from that very place in blood-
stained clothes, would be called as indirect or circumstantial evidence.

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