Dharmawansa Silva and Another v. The Republic of Sri Lanka – sllr 1981 volume 2 page 439

In Dharmawansa Silva and Another v. The Republic of Sri Lanka, the court addressed the admissibility and evidentiary reliability of a dying declaration in a criminal murder prosecution. The court held that the evidence, including the dying statement and eyewitness testimony, was insufficient and unreliable to sustain the convictions, particularly due to issues in translation, questions over the recording officer’s competency, and lack of proper corroboration. It was affirmed that the standard for criminal conviction requires evidence free from substantial doubt, especially when reliant upon dying declarations. The decision was grounded in established case law on the standards for admissible evidence and the value of corroborative support, emphasizing that convictions must be based on trust