A petition has been filed in the Apex Court of determine whether video and voice notes can be treated as dying declarations. The plea challenged the Rajasthan High Court, which refused a plea seeking a court-monitored investigation or CBI probe in an alleged honour killing case.

The petitioner, Uma Paliwal, has raised various questions about whether the video recorded by a victim after an assault can be considered a dying declaration.

The case relates to a worker of Vishakha, an NGO working on issues relating to violence against women, who was brutally assaulted by her family members in May 2022. She made a video of a dying declaration that she would be killed that day, but was found dead the next morning. The family members cremated her body without informing the police or conducting a post-mortem.

The affidavit filed by the Rajasthan Police before the High Court stated that the voice notes and video were not made before a doctor, police officer or magistrate, so they cannot be considered as a dying declaration.

The petition before the SC challenges the chargesheet, which fails to explain the cause of death and the haste by the family members in disposing of the body of the victim without informing the police.

The petitioner argued that the police ignored the version stated by the victim stating apprehension of her death. “The police has ignored the version stated by the victim stating apprehension of her death and has conveniently believed the version of the family members and other witnesses while making a mockery of the dying declaration and relegating it as a hyperbole,” the petition said.