![]() This was viewed as not only to be hurtful to the parties but also to the courts whose function is to meet the ends of justice. The term has been derived from Common Law, where it was introduced to provide adequate safeguards against witnesses that, by providing hostile evidence, ruin the cause of the party calling them. These witnesses are brought in by a party to provide a deposition in its favour and help the prosecution build its case, instead, the witness turns in court and gives a version that is different and contradictory to its earlier statements. Hostile witnesses can destroy carefully constructed cases and cause unjust acquittals of the guilty, and they can make a mockery of an investigative process. It highlights the absence of witness’ rights and suggests reforms to avoid the miscarriage of justice. This article lays down present substantive and procedural laws in the country and globally, while also discussing the lapses in such law and how they lead to witnesses becoming hostile. Regardless of whether it’s an instance of Best Bakery case or Jessica Lal Case it has been found in most of the high profile and even in normal cases that the eye witness of the case becomes hostile during the trial which furthermore not only impairs the prosecution case drastically but also affects justice to the victim. State of Madhya Pradesh and others (2008), the Hon’ble Court held that “free and fair trial is a sine qua non of Article 21 of Indian Constitution. In the celebrated case of Himanshu Singh Sabharwal v. Globally, laws related to hostile witnesses may be progressive but their implementation is questionable. While most of the time, carefully built cases suffer at the hands of unclear and vague laws of evidence collection, in others, the lack of protection for the witnesses is abused by the accused to benefit from it. These cases are prima facie examples of the judiciary becoming a sock puppet of the rich in India and the world over. Jessica Lal, Priyadarshini Mattoo, Best Bakery, Phoolan Devi are all victims of grave offences who were denied a speedy and fair trial due to witnesses turning hostile. Comprehensive Witness Protection Legislation.Evidence under Section 164 Must Be Given Evidentiary Value.Strict Implementation of Section 311 of CrPC.Evidentiary Value of Statements Recorded Under Section 164. ![]() Provisions related to Hostile witness in India.The concept of hostile witness has been explained by the Supreme Court in. ![]()
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