Testimony Cannot Be Rejected Solely Because Witness Is Declared Hostile; Consistent Portions Can Be Relied Upon — Supreme Court

The article covers a recent Supreme Court ruling that a witness being declared “hostile” does not automatically render his entire testimony inadmissible; the court held that portions of the testimony consistent with prosecution or defence may still be accepted. In the case before it, despite earlier contradictions and hostile behaviour, the witness’s statements on certain material aspects were found credible. The Court set aside the High Court’s decision which had rejected the witness’s testimony wholesale. The ruling reinforces the established evidentiary principle that hostile-witness testimony must be evaluated with care, not discarded ipso facto, and that truth-finding requires granular scrutiny rather than blanket rejection — a development with important implications for criminal trials and fair adjudication.