In Brief
A man was convicted of murdering his wife by setting her on fire in 2009. The trial court relied on a dying declaration recorded by a magistrate in which the wife named her husband. The High Court acquitted him, doubting the dying declaration's reliability due to minor discrepancies. The Supreme Court allowed the State's appeal, restoring conviction. The Court held that dying declarations need not follow rigid form and minor discrepancies cannot reject them if voluntary and truthful. Since the wife's statement was recorded by an independent magistrate, was conscious, and directly identified her husband as the attacker, it was reliable and sufficient for conviction under Section 302 IPC.
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