Abstract

In civil and criminal cases the opinions of witnesses generally are not admissible. Witness testimony should be confined to stating of facts. The rationale of this exclusionary rule is that it is the task of the court to form any opinions which need to be formed in any particular case. When the court is perfectly capable of forming an opinion on a fact in issue, allowing a witness to state his opinion would entail a risk of intervening with the impartiality of the court. This article aims at reviewing and compiling the lay standards of opinion evidence from the Evidence Act, 1872 and case law and suggest the legal loopholes regarding the attendance of expert witness. In this article, unless the name of Act is mentioned, reference to sections will normally be from the Evidence Act, 1872.
The general rule excluding opinion evidence is subject to two exceptions, e.g., where the court lacks the witness’s competence to form an opinion on a particular issue due to the lack of direct knowledge or due to the lack of expertise.