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The relevancy is found on the basis of logic, human experience and its admissibility under law.
So the law rejects the facts which are relevant in ordinary life based on public policy, precedent,
etc. Relevance and admissibility are different under legal aspect, what is relevant may not be
admissible and what is admitted may not be relevant.1
The fact which does not logically support a fact will not be taken as a relevant and the fact that
which logically supports will not be rejected unless it is excluded by a clear ground of a policy or
a law.2
Relevance is defined under section3 of the Indian evidence act, 1872. It defines that any fact
which is related or connected to other fact in any of the ways specified under the act will be
taken as a relevant fact.
The conditions which it must satisfy are that there should be a connection between the produced
fact and the principal fact and it should not be too remote, it should not be based on guesswork, it
should not have been excluded by the state of pleadings, it should not have been rendered
unnecessary by admissions of the opposite party.3
News reports consist of the news which is nothing but the opinion of the writer. It has no
evidentiary value and it is not considered by the court. In G.K. Bajpayee v. State of U.P 4 case
the employee who was removed from services by his employer relying on the news that was
published in a newspaper. The court held that the matter published in the newspaper was just the
opinion of the writer and it cannot be considered as a relevant.
1 pg no: 257,258, Law of Evidence, Sir John Woodrofffe and Syed Amir Ali, 18th Edition, Volume 1,
Lexis Nexis
2 https://www.wcl.american.edu/sba/outline_databank/outlines/Evidence_Cook_1.pdf
3 pg no: 6, the law of evidence, Ratan Lal and Dhiraj Lal, 25 th edition, lexis nexis
In Laxmi Raj Shetty v. State the court held that judicial notice cannot be taken based on facts in
a newspaper unless it is proved by other evidence6
A newspaper is of no value when it does not have any other witnesses. It is best second hand
evidence.
In S. Bangappa v. G.N. Hegde7 it was said that when a newspaper publishes news item and on
sole basis of it if a complaint was made, then the intention of the accused, the circumstances and
context in which the statement was made had to be taken into consideration including the
admissibility of the evidence. Without taking into consideration these aspects no action can be
taken.
In some cases newspapers are not taken as relevant evidence because mostly newspapers are
biased and they dont write the actual facts, they write out of their inclinations.8
Newspapers are not considered as evidence, they are considered as evidence only when
genuineness was established.
In S.P. Anand v. Registrar General M.P. High Court case court held that a PIL cannot be
entertained solely on the basis of information which is published in a newspaper. But when the
chief justice or designated judge find outs that a person is deprived of his fundamental rights and
if he has no immediate access to the chief justice or designated judge in that case court has
6 pg no: 3365, Law of Evidence, Sir John Woodrofffe and Syed Amir Ali, 18th Edition, Volume 1, Lexis
Nexis
8 David Niven, Objective Evidence on Media Bias: Newspaper Coverage of Congressional Party
Switchers.
reason to believe that the information given in the newspaper is true then he can entertain a PIL
only on the basis of newspaper.
The 69th law commission report has amended section 81, that the assumption of genuineness
under section 81 is for the documents published before 15th August, 1947 and the 185th Law
commission report agreed with it.11
In libel cases it can be used as evidence and the court considers it. Formerly in England the
courts not allowed the truth in the publication to be shown when they are made with malafide
intention and later they allowed. In cases contempt of court newspaper is considered as
evidence.12
The information published in a newspaper can be relevant but it may not be admissible.
For example when a newspaper prints information regarding an offence which is
connected with fact in issue but it may not be admitted by court as there is no other proof
which states the information as genuine.
The information published in a newspaper can be admissible but it may not be relevant as
the information provide in the newspaper is remotely connected with the fact in issue,
still court may admit it but it is not relevant because of its remoteness.
9 pg no: 1663, Law of Evidence, Sarkar, 17th Edition, Volume 1, Lexis Nexis.
In cases of libel court considers newspaper as evidence. In contempt of court cases when the
newspaper is interfering with the duty of the court newspaper is considered as evidence. In case
of publications which are against the government and are likely to affect the peace of state newspaper is
considered as evidence. If the publishing is made with good intention they were allowed the
newspaper itself is not the proof of their intention they have to prove it by other evidence.
Formerly in England the courts not used to allow the truth in the newspaper to be proved when
they are made with malafide intention and they allowed it later.
which amended the section 81 restricting that the presumption under section 81 in respect of
London gazette and the government gazette of any colony which is either dependent or in
possession of British crown and a private act of the UK parliament which is printed by the
Queens printer must be only to the period before 15th August, 1947.
185th law commission agreed with the recommendation made by the 69 th law commission report
185th law commission has stated that the presumption is only about their genuineness but not
about the truth of their contents.
It also referred Binod Kumar Jain vs. Gauhati Municipal Corp 13 in which it was held that the
translated copy of a news item cannot be considered by the Court as a document in the absence
of the newspaper.
CASE ANALYSIS: