Introduction
The Bhartiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 (BSA), has come into place of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, and has brought forth clarity and modernization to Indian law of evidence. The concepts of fact, fact in issue, and relevant fact are particularly important in legal proceedings since they decide what evidence the court can take into consideration. The BSA offers organized definitions and principles to regulate these elements.
Definition of Fact
Bentham categorized facts into two, i.e., physical/external facts and mental/psychological/external facts. Section 2(1)(f) of Bhartiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 states:
Fact means and includes—
(1) Anything, state of things, or relation of things, capable of being perceived by the senses;
(2) Any mental condition of which any person is conscious.
Explanation
The definition embraces physical facts (those which can be seen, heard, touched, smelled, or tasted) and psychological facts (an individual’s thoughts, plans, or state of mind).
Examples
• A knife with blood at a crime scene is a fact.
• A witness recognizing the accused committing the crime is a fact.
• An individual’s intention to commit a crime is also a fact, which has been deduced from circumstances.
Munir, J. categorized FACT into: Fact in issue and Relevant fact
- Fact in Issue and Issue of Fact
A fact in issue is one that is immediately challenged in a case and that has to be established or rebutted in order for the court to determine the case.
Section 2(1)(g) of Bhartiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 states:
Facts in issue comprehend and include any fact from which, whether alone or when taken in connection with other facts, the existence, non-existence, nature, or extent of any right, liability, or disability claimed or denied in any suit or proceeding necessarily incurs.
Explanation: Whenever, by virtue of the law in force at the time for the time being relating to civil procedure, any court finds an issue of fact, the fact to be alleged or denied in the answer to such issue is a fact in issue.
Fact in issue is also referred to as disputed fact or main fact. Such a fact, which will be asserted by one party and will be denied by the other, will be referred to as a fact in issue. In each suit or proceeding there will be a fact in issue, i.e., Facta Probanda, and to establish fact in issue we require relevant facts.
Whenever a question of fact has been defined by the court, the court will have to permit the parties to establish or refute a specific fact; that fact that a party establishes or refutes is referred to as a fact in issue.
Under Order 14 of the CPC which deals with settlement of issues, the framing of issue in CPC and issue of fact is interrogative sentence about existence of a fact, whereas fact in issue is assertive form of the same interrogative sentence
For instance
Whether A is the adoptive son of B is an issue of fact.
A being the adoptive son of B is a fact in issue.
- Issue of Fact
An issue of fact occurs when there is a disagreement regarding a fact in a case, but it is not always a fact in issue. It is a disputed fact that the court must decide based on evidence.
Example: If the defendant alleges he was in another city during the time of the murder, whether or not he was at the scene of the crime is a matter of fact.
Relevant Facts: Logically and Legally Relevant Facts
- Relevant Fact
A relevant fact is a fact not directly in issue but is related to a fact in issue so as to be useful in establishing or refuting it.
One fact will be regarded as relevant if it is related to some other fact according to the provisions of Chapter II, which addresses the relevancy of facts from sections 3 to 50 of the BSA, 2023, i.e., relevancy of facts is not observed individually, but it is a subjective concept, subjective to some other fact that is related as per the mode given under Chapter II of BSA, 2023.
Relevancy of fact is dependent on two things:
1. Presence of Suit/proceeding in which there is fact in issue and fact in issue is to be tested for relevancy
2. One fact will be Relevant only if it is linked with some other fact in a specific way and thus the relevancy of fact cannot be tested in isolation
Section 2(1)(k) of Bhartiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023
“A fact is stated to be relevant to another when it is related to the other in some one or other of the modes indicated by the provisions of this Adhiniyam concerning the relevancy of facts.”
Example: In a case of murder, an eyewitness observing the accused with a weapon close to the place of the crime is a relevant fact.
Logically Relevant Facts vs. Legally Relevant Facts
- Logically Relevant Facts
Whenever a specific suit or proceeding is conducted, there will be some facts that are main facts and some facts that are related to the main facts; these are the facts that may be related to the main facts and to themselves in a logical way. This relation is that one fact is pertinent to other and the relation is logical. Whenever there is an incident, there will be some other incident around the main incident; these incidents can be logically related to the main incident; that relation is logical relevancy.
The theory of legal relevancy under BSA finds its substance in the theory of logical relevancy. All legally relevant facts shall also be logically relevant, but theoretically all logically relevant facts may not also be legally relevant, but the BSA has been worded so extensively that in any suit or proceeding all logically relevant facts shall also be termed legally relevant.
Therefore, it can be stated that legal relevancy and logical relevancy, as two notions, are such notions that overlap one another in terms of a suit or proceeding.
A logically relevant fact is any fact that, according to logic and reason, relates to the fact in issue. Yet, it may or may not be admissible in court.
Example: In a case of theft, the prior record of theft of the accused is logically relevant but might not be legally relevant owing to the law prohibiting evidence of past offenses from being used to establish current guilt.
- Legally Relevant Facts
A legally relevant fact is one that is not merely logically relevant but is also admissible as evidence under legal provisions.
Example: In a trial for murder, if a witness observed the accused at the scene of the crime with a weapon, this is relevant legally according to the rules of evidence.
Conclusion
The Bhartiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, has updated the law of evidence by making the definitions more lucid and provisioned in an orderly manner. The differentiation between fact in issue and issue of fact provides precision in legal trials, and the division of logically relevant facts and legally relevant facts facilitates the admissibility of evidence. The amendments are directed towards making the judicial system more efficient by having only relevant and legally admissible facts heard in court.
Contributed By: Diwanshi Arya (Intern)