Facts which need not be proved

In a Mumbai court a lawyer says that Independence Day falls on 15 August. The judge does not ask for a witness or a certificate. Everybody knows it, and the law says the court must simply accept it. Yet if the same lawyer says that a particular builder promised possession by March, the judge will want proof. Why is one fact accepted on sight and the other made to earn its place? The Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam answers in three short sections.

In two minutes

A fact need not be proved when the court must take judicial notice of it (ss.51–52) or when the parties have admitted it (s.53); everything else in dispute has to be proved by evidence.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Law of Evidence on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.