LAW OF EVIDENCE 535
- For the Courts outside the Presidency Towns and not established by the Royal Charter no complete rules of Evidence were ever laid down or introduced by authority. Regulations made between 1793 and 1834 contained a few rules. Other were derived from a vague customary law of evidence partly drawn from the Hedya and Mohomeden Law Officers. Others were drawn from English text books.
§ Efforts towards Uniformity:
- The first Act of the Governor General in Council which dealt with evidence, strictly called, was Act X of 1835 which applied to all the Courts in British India and dealt with the proof of the Acts of the Governer General in Council.
This was followed by eleven enactments passed at intervals during the next twenty years, which effected various small amendments of the law of evidence and applied to the Courts in India several of the reforms in the law of Evidence made in England.
In 1855, Act II of 1855 was passed for the further improvement of the law of evidence which contained many provisions applicable to all the Courts in British India.
- Notwithstanding this attempt at uniformity there continued to be a great deal of disparity between the rules of Evidence applicable in the Presidency Towns and those applicable in the Muffassil. This disparity continued to be the subject of frequent judicial comment.
To remedy this state of affairs, Act I of 1872 was passed.
§ Construction of the Act:
- An Act may be (l) to consolidate or (2) to amend or
(3) to consolidate and to amend or it may be to define i.e. to codify. The construction of an Act would differ according as it is a consolidating Act or a Codifying Act.
- Construction of a Codifying Act : The rule of construction in regard to a Codifying Act is laid down in
(1891) A. C. 107 (120).
Bank of England vs. Vagliano .
Lord Halsbury observed: