HEERALAL YADAV V. STATE OF M.P. AND ORS INSC 368

CASE BRIEF CASE NAME Heeralal Yadav Vs. State of MP and Others FACTS The deceased Gokul Singh was attacked by 8 men holding different weapons including a sword farsi, dhariya, knife, and lathis. The deceased’s son ran to his grandfather and uncle after which his uncle rushed to the scene and saw the accused flee and had Gokul Singh rushed to a hospital. Without the executive magistrate, Dr Khan was requested to record the dying declaration of Gokul Singh. In the trial court, the accused were held guilty based on the dying declaration and eyewitnesses. On appeal to the High Court, it was held that the dying declaration recorded by Dr. Khan does not hold confidence. ISSUE The first question before the Supreme Court is whether the High Court committed a miscarriage of Justice by way of their ruling. The second question is whether the dying declaration holds confidence. HOLDING: The dying Declaration of the deceased recorded by Dr. Khan inspires confidence. The Supreme Court also held that the High Court committed grave miscarriage of justice and set aside their order. RATIONALE The high court reasoned that the dying declaration was not true because as the son of the deceased’s conduct was unnatural that the dying declaration was not true. The supreme court however believes that this argument is fallacious and not logical. The other reason was that Dr. did not state that the deceased was fit to give this declaration. The Supreme Court believes that since the doctor himself recorded the statement and even if that was not true, he had given a fitness certificate stating the fitness of the patient. They also cite a constitutional bench judgment of the Supreme Court Laxman Vs. The state of Maharashtra holds that the lack of a fitness certificate does not impede the creditworthiness of a dying declaration.