Write a short note on the Deposition of a medical witness.

Question: Write a short note on the Deposition of a medical witness.

Find the answer only on Legal Bites. [Write a short note on the Deposition of a medical witness.]

Answer

Under Section 291 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the provisions regarding the deposition of the medical witnesses are present. This section only deals with the situation where the medical witness is not called at the trial, it cannot be extended to the cases where such a medical witness was called and examined.

This section allows the examination of a Civil Surgeon taken and duly attested by a Magistrate, to be given in evidence in any inquiry, trial, or other proceedings before a Court. It does not in any way preclude the Court from calling the Civil Surgeon and examining him. And this course ought to be pursued in every case in which the deposition taken is essentially deficient or requires further explanation or elucidation.

This section is intended to be confined to cases in which a medical witness is not called at the trial. It cannot be extended to cases where the medical witness is called and examined. Where, therefore, a doctor’s evidence is recorded in the Sessions Court, his deposition before the committing Magistrate or the post-mortem examination report which formed part of that deposition cannot be legally admitted in evidence under this section at the Sessions trial [Bharosey v. Emperor, (1946) 22 Luck 15].

As observed in Roghuni Singh v. The Empress, (1883) ILR 9 Cal 455; a medical man, while giving evidence, may refresh his memory by referring to a report that he has made of his post-mortem examination, but the report itself cannot be treated as evidence and no facts can be taken therefrom.

But notes of post-mortem examination prepared by a medical officer are admissible in evidence where the same is duly proved by the testimony of the medical officer who has performed the examination and has recorded the same.

The notes of a post-mortem examination are not intended to be mechanically admitted on the record of a case. The medical officer must be called upon to give evidence on matters which have a bearing on the questions to be decided by the Court, and he must also be called upon to depose whether the record made by him in the notes of the post-mortem examination are true and if the medical officer deposes to the truth of the record made by him, the record itself may be treated as evidence.

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