Forensic Science and Physical Evidence Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The provision is Section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act.

Section 65B governs the admissibility of electronic records. A recording copied from a phone's memory onto a micro-SD card is computer output, a secondary copy of an electronic record, and it is admissible if the conditions of Section 65B are met and it is accompanied by the certificate under Section 65B(4), as the Supreme Court held in Anvar P.V. v. P.K. Basheer (2014).

None of the other numbers is the Evidence Act's provision on the admissibility of electronic records; Section 79A, for instance, is the Information Technology Act provision under which Examiners of Electronic Evidence are notified.

Answer: D

The lowest coefficient of friction is on ice.

Typical tyre-road friction coefficients are roughly 0.7-0.8 on dry asphalt, 0.4-0.6 on wet asphalt, about 0.2-0.4 on mud, and only about 0.1 on ice, falling further on wet ice. A lower coefficient means a longer stopping distance, so accident reconstruction must use the value for the actual surface when calculating speed from skid marks.

Dry asphalt gives the highest grip, and wet asphalt and mud lie between dry asphalt and ice.

Answer: C

A dying declaration is preferably recorded by a Magistrate. It is admissible under section 32(1) of the Indian Evidence Act, and the courts give the greatest weight to one recorded by a Magistrate, who is an impartial judicial officer and can certify that the person was fit and spoke voluntarily.

A doctor may record it when no Magistrate can come in time, and the police may do so in an emergency, but both are second choices because the police are an interested party in the case. A jury member has no role in recording statements, and the Indian system has no jury trial in ordinary cases. Under the law the declaration must be made when the person believes death is near and it relates to the cause of death.

Answer: C

Murder cases are tried in the Sessions Court. Murder is punishable with death or life imprisonment under section 302 IPC, and the Code of Criminal Procedure makes such offences triable exclusively by a Court of Session.

A Chief Judicial Magistrate and a Metropolitan Magistrate of the 1st class can try only offences with limited punishment, and cannot pass a sentence of death or life imprisonment. The High Court can try a murder case only as a trial court in rare cases, so it is not where such cases are ordinarily tried. The reason for this rule is the gravity of the punishment, and so the case goes to the highest trial court of the district and not to a magistrate.

Answer: A

A police inquest, held when a person dies in suspicious or unnatural circumstances, is conducted under section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The police officer examines the body at the scene, and prepares a report of the apparent cause of death.

Section 174 IPC deals with non-attendance in obedience to a public servant's order, not inquests, and IPC has no section on inquest procedure. Section 176 CrPC covers the inquiry by a Magistrate into the cause of death, which is a magisterial inquest, not a police inquest. Section 176 IPC concerns omission to give notice or information to a public servant. The inquest report is then used by the doctor performing the post-mortem, and the Magistrate may take further steps under other sections if foul play is suspected.

Answer: B

Skid marks on the road may indicate the speed of the vehicle. The length of a skid, with the friction of the road, gives the speed at which the brakes were applied, by the formula for skidding distance.

The marks do not say the make of the vehicle, its weight or its height, although tyre patterns in a mark can help identify a tyre. The speed is estimated from the relation between speed, skidding distance and the coefficient of friction of the road, which is why the length of the mark is measured at the scene by the investigating officer.

Answer: C

Chemical etching is a method for restoring erased marks, such as a stamped serial number, on metal. Stamping deforms the metal below the surface, and an etching reagent attacks the deformed metal faster than the rest, so the number shows again.

Wood, leather and plastic are handled by other means, such as heating or careful lighting, since a strong chemical etch is meant for the structure of metals. The method works on stamped numbers because the metal below the stamp is compressed and work-hardened, and this deformed zone reacts differently to the etchant than the surrounding metal, even after the number has been filed off.

Answer: A

An inquest is an inquiry into an unnatural death and in India it is begun by the police, so a-ii. Conduct money is the sum paid to a witness to meet the expenses of attending court, so b-iv. A leading question, one that suggests the answer, is allowed in cross-examination, so c-i. Corpus delicti, printed corpus delect, is the body of the crime, the substance of the evidence that a crime has been committed, so d-iii. This gives a-ii, b-iv, c-i, d-iii, option A. Options B, C and D each match inquest or conduct money with the wrong item, for instance leading question with a witness.

Answer: D

Conduct money is paid for appearing in court as a witness. It is the amount that the party calling a witness pays, or that the court orders to be paid, to cover the cost of travel and attendance for the day. It is not a fee for conducting an autopsy (A), for chemical analysis (B) or for collecting evidentiary material at the scene (C), because those are the duties of the doctor, the chemist and the investigating officer and are not paid as conduct money. So D is the answer.

Answer: B

The types of inquest held in India at present are the police inquest and the magistrate inquest. The police inquest is held by the police officer under section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for suspicious or unnatural deaths, and the magistrate inquest is held under section 176 in cases such as death in police custody. The coroner system was in use earlier in a few cities and is not the present practice, and the medical examiner system belongs to some other countries. So B is correct.