Amendment status not verified — confirm the current text below against the official source.
Non-examination of material witness. - If a direct witness is available and in a posi- tion also to substantiate more material facts than the other prosecution witnesses, examined by the prosecution and also happens to be an independent witness, the giving up of such a witness would indeed create a suspicion. The stage at which any observation by the Public Prosecutor that a material witness is a partisan of the accused or has turned hostile can be made is only when such answers are given by the witness, or when the demeanour of a witness is such that such an inference becomes possible. It would, therefore, mean that it is improper for a Public Prosecutor without basing his own impressions on such material to make representations of the kind that a witness is hostile, or is a partisan of the accused offhand. The practice of relying upon mere impressional statements and justifying the non- examination of a material by Courts ought to be deprecated.