In a significant ruling, the Delhi High Court has held that the dying declarations recorded by police officers are not “worthy of lending credence” as they are the part of the investigation team.

Frowning upon the practice of recording such statements of the victims by police officials themselves, a bench said “the fact that the dying declaration was scribed by the police inspector alone clearly shows that it was not worthy of reliance”.  The bench  said such declarations are to be recorded by judicial magistrates and in case, police officer records the statement then proper reasons should be given for doing so.

Concurring with a single judge bench order setting aside the life sentence, awarded to a man by a trial court for allegedly killing his cousin’s wife, it said: “It is better to leave such dying declaration out of consideration until and unless the prosecution satisfies why it was not recorded by a magistrate or by a doctor”.