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EVIDENCE ACT 1843 - SECT 1

Witnesses not to be excluded from giving evidence by incapacity from crime or interest.

1.] No person offered as a witness shall hereafter be excluded by reason of
incapacity from crime or interest from giving evidence, either in person or by
deposition, according to the practice of the court, on the trial of any issue
joined, or of any matter or question or on any inquiry arising in any suit,
action, or proceeding, civil or criminal, in any court, or before any judge,
jury, sheriff, coroner, magistrate, officer, or person having, by law or by
consent of parties, authority to hear, receive, and examine evidence; but
every person so offered may and shall be admitted to give evidence on oath, or
solemn affirmation ..., notwithstanding that such person may or shall have an
interest in the matter in question, or in the event of the trial of any issue,
matter, question, or inquiry, or of the suit, action, or proceeding in which
he is offered as a witness, and notwithstanding that such person offered as a
witness may have been previously convicted of any crime or offence: ...:
Provided also, that this Act shall not repeal any provision in the
Wills Act, 1837: Provided that in courts of equity any defendant to any cause
pending in any such court may be examined as a witness on the behalf of the
plaintiff or of any co-defendant in any such cause, saving just exceptions;
and that any interest which such defendant so to be examined may have in the
matters or any of the matters in question in the cause shall not be deemed a
just exception to the testimony of such defendant, but shall only be
considered as affecting or tending to affect the credit of such defendant as a
witness.

S.2 rep. by 1978 c.23 s.122(2) sch.7 Pt.I. S.3 rep. by SLR 1874 (No. 2)



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