The central legal point established in the judgment is the strict scrutiny of dying declarations, emphasizing the need for total confidence, surrounding circumstances, and the mental and physical condition of the deceased at the time of recording.

( 1 ) THIS is one more of the extremely sad wife burning cases where the accused-husband has been acquitted on the ground that the only piece of evidence against him namely Ex. P-13, the dying declaration, cannot be relied upon. The deceased Naheema had been married to the accused for something like 11 years and she was the mother of three children. The prosecution alleges that the accused Shefi ahamed used to not only treat her with high levels of unkindness but that he was not even providing for the family's necessities and on top of it that he used to come home drunk. On the evening of 19-1-1996 he came home drunk and demanded his food from the wife, who unfortunately told him that she was able to prepare very limited quantity of food which was only sufficient for the children and that it was not possible for her to give it to him. There was a violent quarrel between them and the husband had taken the can of kerosene oil and doused Naheema and set her on fire. She raised an alarm and ran out of the house screaming and the neighbours put off the fire. She was taken to the hospital with 65% burns virtually in an unconscious condition. The next morning her statement was recorded, in which she implicated the husband as the person who set her on fire and this statement has been treated as the F. I. R. After a couple of days Naheema got herself discharged from the hospital against medical advice. She was brought back to the hospital on 24-1-1996 as septicaemia had developed and she was pronounced dead on admission. The charge was altered to one under Section 302, I. P. C. The accused was charge sheeted and put up for trial. The trial Judge, in what we consider to be an excellent judgment, has meticulously dealt with every relevant aspect of the record. He has taken cognizance of the fact that every single witness, except the doctor and the Investigating Officer, have failed to support the prosecution. The learned Judge has taken cognizance of the law on the point particularly the decision of the Supreme Court, reported in the case of khushal Rao v. State of Bombay, AIR 1958 sc 22 : (1958 Cri LJ 106) wherein it has been laid down that a dying declaration which inspires total confidence can form the sole basis of a conviction and having discussed the law on the point the learned trial judge has proceeded to do a very careful and correct analysis of Ex. P-13. While it is true that Naheema has implicated the accused in Ex. P-13, the learned trial Judge has held that the doctor, P. W. 15, has admitted that he has only superscribed his signature to the dying declaration indicating that it was recorded before him, but in cross-examination he has admitted that he was not present all through the recording. More importantly, the learned trial Judge holds that, in his evidence before the Court the doctor has nowhere even indicated that the patient was in a fit condition mentally and physically to understand and answer questions. The learned trial Judge has finally rejected the dying declaration Ex. P-13 and has acquitted the accused for want of evidence. Having regard to the complexion of the case the State has filed the appeal against the order of acquittal.

( 2 ) WE have heard the learned Addl. State public Prosecutor, both on facts and law, and have done a total and meticulous review of the record. We have heard the learned advocate Sri B. Anand, who has been requested to appear as amicus curiae and who as usual, has done a very competent handling of the brief. Sri Anand draws our attention to an earlier Division Bench judgment of this Court, reported in the case of State of Karnataka v. Basavaraj, 2002 Crilj 843 : (2002 AIR Kant HCR 362), to which one of us was party, wherein the Court had occasion to reject the dying declaration principally because the requisite endorsement or certification from the doctor was not superscribed on it, also because of the timing and because of the finding of the Court that the condition of t