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Burden of proof on accused to prove plea of insanity is one of preponderance of probability : Supreme Court

Team SoOLEGAL 6 Feb 2023 11:37am

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Burden of proof on accused to prove plea of insanity is one of preponderance of probability : Supreme Court

New Delhi: Accepting the plea of insanity, the Supreme Court recently set aside an order passed by a trial court in 2006 convicting a man for murder. The Court noted that the appellant was undergoing schizophrenia treatment at the time of the 2004 offence. There was evidence on record that he had received inpatient treatment for mental illness at a government medical college hospital before the incident. Two doctors had also testified about the appellant's illness before the Court. However, the Trial Court and the High Court ignored these factors.

In the judgment, the Court observed that the burden on the accused to prove his plea of insanity is one of the preponderance of probability. It was further noted that the burden of proof does lie on the accused to prove to the satisfaction of the court that one was insane while doing the act prohibited by law, but such a burden gets discharged based on the prima facie case and reasonable materials that are produced on his behalf. The degree of probability is one of the preponderances. This is because a person of unsound mind is not expected to demonstrate his sanity beyond a reasonable doubt. 

The bench of Justices B R Gavai and M M Sundresh ordered that "it is the collective responsibility of the person concerned, the Court, and the prosecution to decipher the proof qua insanity by not treating it as an adversarial matter."


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