Bursting a long-held belief that the dying declaration of a person could be a binding piece of evidence to nail the accused, the SC has ruled that such a declaration has to be put through the test of reliability like any other evidence. Acquitting two convicted for murder, a bench said a dying declaration has special sanctity as at that moment, a person is unlikely to lie. But, it added, that it has to be tested ‘‘as the accused doesn’t get an opportunity of questioning veracity of the statement’’.
