There is provision of bodily and mental examination of the state of a person in the Indian Evidence Act. This is justified as per the conditions mentioned under the Indian Evidence Act and varies from cases to cases. One can not say that it involves any kind of breach of personal liberty and deprivation of some kind. One cannot even contest the fundamental aspects of article 21, since it has been clearly mentioned in the legal contexts. Court may issue any such examination order or appoint any medical practitioner in case it feels the need.
About the case law
Whenever, the court is of opinion that one must be taken into medical consideration, in order to bring forth the final verdict, the court may issue any particular order of that sort. And it becomes the very duty of parties to abide by what they have been obligated to. In this case, there was order from the court for scientific investigation of the petitioner, in order to know if he is impotent or not. And to find out if he can consummate the marriage or not.
There was a counter affidavit filed in which the allegations and contentions were denied by the husband. Another conception highlighted, was that no medical examination question arises in this particular case. Several other related cases were taken into consideration. In other cases, of similar nature, the court has ordered such medical examinations as well and people have followed what they have been instructed to do, order to reach the conclusions.
There was an important case, namely Birendra Kumar v. Hemlata Biswas, in which the husband filed suit on two grounds, namely, that wife was impotent and consent was obtained by fraud. It was done as per the rules and regulations of the Indian Divorce Act. It was alleged by husband that wife was also suffering from Syphilis and it was incurable. However, in this particular case, no full investigation was done and case was remanded for trial thereto. The bench ordered proper medical examination, in order to bring forward the actual scenario which clearly imparts that courts can exercise wide discretion when it comes to ordering physical examination in a particular case.
In order to bring the sensibility of the case to a certain conclusion, it becomes important to reach out for the most peculiar contextual and situational details and the decide upon the matter holistically. There are other references where it has been concluded, primarily that confessions of people are admissible in cases to a certain extent but they cannot be regarded as sufficient in the subject matter. Rather, they must be corroborated to be taken as completely admissibility. The court may direct any kind of medical and surgical examination as it deems fit, in order to completely analyse the facts and to reach out to conclusions in certain cases.
Talking about the case again, it was said that mental or bodily examination is certainly not excluded by section 14 of Indian Evidence Act. And thus, the very exposure to any such medical examination aided by scientific data cannot be regarded as any kind of deprivation of personal liberty and breach of Article 21 for that matter.
For any help and assistance in such cases, you are always open to contact the Law Office of G.S. Bagga, as we will be happy to help and serve you to the best of our firm’s ability.
