Law of Evidence

Admissibility of Evidence in Conspiracy Case

Submitted by: R B V P Singh

Submitted to: Dr. Sarita Sangwan

47LLB14

INTRODUCTION
Where there is reasonable ground to believe that two or more persons have conspired together to
commit an offence or an actionable wrong, anything said, done or written by any one of such
persons in reference to their common intention, after the time when such intention was first
entertained by any one of them, is a relevant fact as against each of the persons believed to so
conspiring, as well for the purpose of proving the existence of the conspiracy as for the purpose
of showing that any such person was a party to it.
Section 10 deals with the admissibility of evidence in a conspiracy case. It is based on the
theory of implied agency. The special feature of the section is that anything said or done or
written by any member of conspiracy is evidence and admissible against the other if it relates to
the conspiracy. This section has to be read with Section 120A of the Indian Penal Code. When
any conspirator has assumed to do any act of conspiracy in furtherance of common design, it is a
part of res gestae. All conspirators must have common intention at the time when the thing was
said, done or written. Confessions by accused made after the object of the conspiracy is carried
out are not relevant as the common intention did not exist then.
The first condition for applying Section 10 is that the conspirators have conspired together. The
conspiracy is, therefore, an unlawful combination of two or more persons to do an unlawful act
or a lawful act by unlawful means. There must be reasonable ground to believe that two or more
persons have conspired together to commit an offence. However, a conspiracy is not actionable
act giving rise to cause of action.
There are certain ground ingredients like an illegal agreement should exist between two are more
persons involved in conspiracy and act which is not illegal but by illegal means et al.
The subsequent chapters would talk about the nuances of section 10 and section 30, being an
exception to rule of admissibility of evidence in conspiracy cases. This would also include recent
Supreme Court judgments on the section 10 and section 30 as well.

Review of Literature
Researcher would use various books namely, Commentaries on Law of Evidence et al. and legal
database for doing suitable research and for reaching on a conclusive answer and to provide
appropriate recommendations. Also, Researcher wishes to analyse five recent Supreme Court
judgments on Section 10 of Evidence Act to carve out the judicial approach to admissibility of
evidence.

Research Questions:
1. Whether the section 10 of Indian Evidence Act accrues any judicial discretion to the
Supreme Court Judges in case of admissibility of evidence?
2. What has been the recent judicial approach to the admissibility of evidence in conspiracy
cases?
Objective:
To find out the nature and scope and scope of section 10 of Indian Evidence Act which deals
with the admissibility of evidence in conspiracy cases and also, being an exception to section 30
of the same act, it is imperative upon the researcher to put forth the relevant nuances of
aforementioned sections in subsequent chapters.
Hypothesis:
Section 10 of Indian Evidence Act does not confer any judicial discretion to judges and there are
certain ground rules which need to be satisfied for admissibility of evidence.