Report No. 152

11.5. Recommendation for Amendment of section 114.-

In the light of the material contained in the preceding paragraphs of this Report, we are very strongly of the opinion that the recommendation made by the Law Commission in its 113th Report should be carried out by inserting section 114B of the Indian Evidence Act and we would add two points by way of amplification.

The provision in the first place may specifically include death even though that is implicit in the draft that was recommended in the earlier Report. Secondly, the provisions of the new section should be made applicable to every public servant who has power under the law to arrest and detain a person in custody. The actual placing of the section, we leave to the draftman. We may mention that a response to our Questionnaire the majority have favoured such a rebuttable presumption (Issue No. 4).