‘Evidence Of Interested Witnesses Should Be Subjected To Careful Scrutiny & Accepted With Caution’: Reiterates Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court has held that the testimony of an interested witness, though admissible, should be accepted by the Court after a careful scrutiny and corroboration with other materials placed on record. A Division Bench comprising of Justices Manoj Misra and Saumitra Dayal Singh observed, “an interested witness must be tested more carefully before any firm conclusion may be reached thereon.” In this context, the Bench referred to a decision of the Apex Court in Jalpat Rai v. State of Haryana, 2011 (14) SCC 208, where it was held, “All that is necessary is that the evidence of interested witnesses should be subjected to careful scrutiny and accepted with caution. If on such scrutiny, the interested testimony is found to be intrinsically reliable or inherently probable, it may, by itself, be sufficient, in the circumstances of the particular case, to base a conviction thereon.”