Browse an Act, find a provision and read each section in context.
Browse Acts ↓No witness who is not a party to the suit shall be compelled to produce his title deeds to any property, or any document in virtue of which he holds any property as pledge or mortgagee, or any document the production of which might tend to incriminate him, unless he has agreed in writing with the pe…
No one shall be compelled to produce documents in his possession, which any other person would be entitled to refuse to produce if they were in his possession, unless such other person consents to their production.
(1) A bank, or officer of a bank, shall not, in any legal proceedings to which the bank is not a party, be compelled to produce any banker’s book the contents of which can be proved under the provisions of Chapter VII. (2) No bank or officer of a bank shall be summoned or called as a witness to prov…
An accomplice shall be a competent witness against an accused person; and a conviction shall not be illegal merely because it proceeds upon the uncorroborated evidence of an accomplice.
No person who is entitled to refuse to produce a document shall be compelled to give oral evidence of its contents.
No particular number of witnesses shall, in the absence of any provision of law to the contrary, be required for the proof of any fact.
(1) When either party proposes to give evidence of any fact, the court may ask the party proposing to give the evidence in what manner the alleged fact, if proved, would be admissible. (2) The court shall admit the evidence of any fact if it thinks that the fact, if proved, would be admissible and n…
(1) The examination of a witness by the party who calls him shall be called his examination-in-chief. (2) The examination of a witness by the adverse party shall be called his cross-examination. (3) Where a witness has been cross-examined and is then examined by the party who called him, such examin…
(1) Witnesses shall first be examined-in-chief, then, if the adverse party so desires, cross-examined, then, if the party calling them so desires, re-examined. (2) Subject to the following provisions of this Act, the examination-in-chief and cross-examination must relate to relevant facts, but the c…
A person called to produce a document does not become a witness by the mere fact that he produces it, and cannot be cross-examined unless and until he is called as a witness.
A witness to character may be cross-examined and re-examined.
Any question suggesting the answer which the person putting it wishes or expects to receive, or suggesting a disputed fact as to which the witness is to testify, is a leading question.
(1) Leading questions must not, if objected to by the adverse party, be asked in an examination-in-chief or in a re-examination, except with the permission of the court. (2) The court shall permit leading questions as to matters which are introductory or undisputed, or which have in its opinion been…
Leading questions may be asked in cross-examination.
Any witness may be asked, whilst under examination, whether any contract or grant or other disposition of property as to which he is giving evidence was not contained in a document, but if he says that it was, or if he is about to make any statement as to the contents of any document which, in the o…
A witness may be cross-examined as to previous statements made by him in writing or reduced into writing, and relevant to matters in question, without such writing being shown to him or being proved, but if it is intended to contradict a witness by a previous written statement, his attention must, b…
When a witness is cross-examined he may, in addition to the questions hereinbefore referred to, be asked any questions which tend— (a) to test his accuracy, veracity or credibility; (b) to discover who he is and what is his position in life; (c) to shake his credit, by injuring his character, althou…
If any question asked under paragraph (c) of subsection 154 of this Act for the purpose of affecting the credit of the witness relates to a matter relevant to the suit or proceeding, the provisions of section 128 of this Act shall apply thereto.
A person charged with an offence and called as a witness for the defence may be asked any question in cross-examination notwithstanding that the answer may tend to incriminate him as to the offence charged.
(1) If any question asked relates to a matter not relevant to the suit or proceeding except in so far as it affects the credit of the witness by injuring his character, the court shall decide whether or not the witness shall be compelled to answer it, and may, if it does not so compel him, warn the…
No such question as is referred to in section 157 of this Act ought to be asked unless the person asking it has reasonable grounds for thinking that the imputation which it conveys is well founded.
The court may forbid any questions or inquiries which it regards as indecent or scandalous, although such questions or inquiries may have some bearing on the questions before the court, unless they relate to facts in issue or to matters necessary to be known in order to determine whether or not the…
The court shall forbid any question which appears to it to be intended to insult or annoy, or which, though proper in itself, appears to the court needlessly offensive in form.
The court may, in its discretion, permit the person who calls a witness to put any questions to him which might be put in cross-examination by the adverse party.
When a witness has been asked and has answered any question which is relevant to the proceedings only in so far as it tends to shake his credit by injuring his character, no evidence shall be given to contradict him but if he answers falsely he may afterwards be charged with giving false evidence: P…
(1) The credit of a witness may be impeached in the following ways by the adverse party, or, with the consent of the court, by the party who calls him— (a) by the evidence of persons who testify that they, from their knowledge of the witness, believe him to be unworthy of credit; (b) by proof that t…
When a witness the truthfulness of whose evidence it is intended to confirm gives evidence of any fact, he may be questioned as to any other circumstances which he observed at or near the time or place at which the fact occurred, if the court is of opinion that such circumstances, if proved, would t…
In order to show that the testimony of a witness is consistent any former statement made by such witness, whether written or oral, relating to the same fact at or about the time when the fact took place, or before any authority legally competent to investigate the fact, may be proved.
Whenever any statement admissible under section 33 or section 34 of this Act is proved, all matters which might have been proved if that person had been called as a witness and had denied upon cross-examination the truth of the matter suggested, may be proved either to contradict or to show consiste…
(1) A witness may, while under examination, refresh his memory by referring to any writing made by himself at the time of the transaction concerning which he is questioned, or made so soon afterwards that the court considers it likely that the transaction was at that time fresh in his memory. (2) A…