Application of forensic evidence in civil and criminal cases

Two families walk into the Bombay courts on the same morning. One is a husband who has been accused of murder and whose shirt is in a lab in Kalina. The other is a man who wants a DNA test to disprove that a child is his. Both cases use science, but the State holds the power to collect samples in the first, and a private party must ask the court in the second. This topic compares how forensic evidence is used, collected and weighed in criminal and in civil proceedings.

In two minutes

In criminal cases forensic evidence is collected by the investigating machinery under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and must prove guilt to the standard of the Adhiniyam; in civil cases a party asks the court to allow testing (DNA, handwriting, scientific commission) and the court balances the need against privacy and presumptions.

The rest of this chapter

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