Section 125 of Evidence Act CAP 80: Competency generally
(1) All persons shall be competent to testify unless the court considers that they are prevented from understanding the questions put to them, or from giving rational answers to those questions, by tender years, extreme old age, disease (whether of body or mind) or any similar cause.
(2) A mentally disordered person or a lunatic is not incompetent to testify unless he is prevented by his condition from understanding the questions put to him and giving rational answers to them.
Enhance Your Research with Bookmarks and Annotations
Here's how you can use these features:
- To bookmark this page, click the "Bookmark this Page" button below the document title.
- To add an annotation, highlight text in the document and select "Add Annotation" from the toolbar that appears.
- These features are great for organizing your research and keeping track of key information.
- You can view and manage your bookmarks and annotations on your Bookmarks and Annotations page.
- Section 126 - Dumb witnesses
(1) A witness who is unable to speak may give his evidence in any other manner in which he can make it intelligible, as, for example, by writing or by signs; but such writing must be written, and the...
- Section 127 - Competency of parties and spouses
(1) In civil proceedings the parties to the suit, and the husband or wife of any party to the suit, shall be competent witnesses.
(2) In criminal proceedings every person charged with an offence,...
- Section 128 - Compellability of ordinary witnesses
A witness shall not be excused from answering any question as to any matter relevant to the matter in issue in any suit or in any civil or criminal proceeding, upon the ground that the answer to such...
- Section 129 - Privilege of court
No judge or magistrate shall, except upon the special order of some court to which he is subordinate, be compelled to answer any questions as to his own conduct in court as such judge or magistrate,...
- Section 130 - Communications during marriage
(1) No person shall be compelled to disclose any communication made to him or her during marriage, by the other spouse; nor shall a person be permitted to disclose such communication without the...
- Section 131 - Privilege relating to official records
Whenever it is stated on oath (whether by affidavit or otherwise) by a Minister that he has examined the contents of any document forming part of any unpublished official records, the production of...
- Section 132 - Privilege of official communications
No public officer shall be compelled to disclose communications made by any person to him in the course of his duty, when he considers that the public interest would suffer by the disclosure.
- Section 133 - Privilege relating to information of commission of offences
(1) No judge, magistrate or police officer shall be compelled to say whence he got any information as to the commission of any offence, and no revenue officer shall be compelled to say whence he got...
- Section 134 - Privilege of advocates
(1) No advocate shall at any time be permitted unless with his client’s express consent, to disclose any communication made to him in the course and for the purpose of his employment as such advocate,...
- Section 135 - Privilege of interpreters, and advocates’ clerks and servants
The provisions of section 134 of this Act shall apply to interpreters, and the clerks or servants of advocates.
- Section 136 - Waiving of privilege of advocates, etc.
(1) If any party to a suit or proceeding gives evidence therein at his own instance or otherwise, he shall not be deemed to have consented thereby to such disclosure as is mentioned in section 134(1)...
- Section 137 - Communications with an advocate
No one shall be compelled to disclose to the court any confidential communication which has taken place between him and his advocate unless he offers himself as a witness, in which case he may be...
- Section 138 - Title deeds and incriminating documents in hands of third party
No witness who is not a party to the suit shall be compelled to produce his title deeds to any property, or any document in virtue of which he holds any property as pledge or mortgagee, or any...
- Section 139 - Privileged document in possession of another
No one shall be compelled to produce documents in his possession, which any other person would be entitled to refuse to produce if they were in his possession, unless such other person consents to...
- Section 140 - Bankers’ books
(1) A bank, or officer of a bank, shall not, in any legal proceedings to which the bank is not a party, be compelled to produce any banker’s book the contents of which can be proved under the...
- Section 141 - Accomplices
An accomplice shall be a competent witness against an accused person; and a conviction shall not be illegal merely because it proceeds upon the uncorroborated evidence of an accomplice.
- Section 142 - Privileges to exclude oral evidence of documents
No person who is entitled to refuse to produce a document shall be compelled to give oral evidence of its contents.
- Section 143 - Number of witnesses
No particular number of witnesses shall, in the absence of any provision of law to the contrary, be required for the proof of any fact.
- Section 144 - Court to decide as to the admissibility of evidence
(1) When either party proposes to give evidence of any fact, the court may ask the party proposing to give the evidence in what manner the alleged fact, if proved, would be admissible.
(2) The court...
- Section 145 - Type of examination of witnesses
(1) The examination of a witness by the party who calls him shall be called his examination-in-chief.
(2) The examination of a witness by the adverse party shall be called his cross-examination....
- Section 146 - Order and direction of examinations
(1) Witnesses shall first be examined-in-chief, then, if the adverse party so desires, cross-examined, then, if the party calling them so desires, re-examined.
(2) Subject to the following...
- Section 147 - Person called to produce a document
A person called to produce a document does not become a witness by the mere fact that he produces it, and cannot be cross-examined unless and until he is called as a witness.
- Section 148 - Witness to character
A witness to character may be cross-examined and re-examined.
- Section 149 - Meaning of leading question
Any question suggesting the answer which the person putting it wishes or expects to receive, or suggesting a disputed fact as to which the witness is to testify, is a leading question.
- Section 150 - Leading questions in examination-in-chief and re-examination
(1) Leading questions must not, if objected to by the adverse party, be asked in an examination-in-chief or in a re-examination, except with the permission of the court.
(2) The court shall permit...
- Section 151 - Leading questions in cross-examination
Leading questions may be asked in cross-examination.
- Section 152 - Examination as to whether certain formal matters are contained in writing
Any witness may be asked, whilst under examination, whether any contract or grant or other disposition of property as to which he is giving evidence was not contained in a document, but if he says...
- Section 153 - Cross-examination as to previous written statements
A witness may be cross-examined as to previous statements made by him in writing or reduced into writing, and relevant to matters in question, without such writing being shown to him or being proved,...
- Section 154 - Cross-examination as to credibility
When a witness is cross-examined he may, in addition to the questions hereinbefore referred to, be asked any questions which tend—
(a) to test his accuracy, veracity or credibility;
(b) to...
- Section 155 - Compulsion to answer questions as to credit
If any question asked under paragraph (c) of subsection 154 of this Act for the purpose of affecting the credit of the witness relates to a matter relevant to the suit or proceeding, the provisions of...
- Section 156 - Cross-examination of accused person
A person charged with an offence and called as a witness for the defence may be asked any question in cross-examination notwithstanding that the answer may tend to incriminate him as to the offence...
- Section 157 - Discretion of court to compel witness to answer question as to credit
(1) If any question asked relates to a matter not relevant to the suit or proceeding except in so far as it affects the credit of the witness by injuring his character, the court shall decide whether...
- Section 158 - Necessity for grounds before attacking character
No such question as is referred to in section 157 of this Act ought to be asked unless the person asking it has reasonable grounds for thinking that the imputation which it conveys is well founded.
- Section 159 - Indecent or scandalous questions
The court may forbid any questions or inquiries which it regards as indecent or scandalous, although such questions or inquiries may have some bearing on the questions before the court, unless they...
- Section 160 - Insulting or annoying questions
The court shall forbid any question which appears to it to be intended to insult or annoy, or which, though proper in itself, appears to the court needlessly offensive in form.
- Section 161 - Discretion to allow cross-examination of own witness
The court may, in its discretion, permit the person who calls a witness to put any questions to him which might be put in cross-examination by the adverse party.
- Section 162 - Exclusion of evidence to contradict a witness
When a witness has been asked and has answered any question which is relevant to the proceedings only in so far as it tends to shake his credit by injuring his character, no evidence shall be given to...
- Section 163 - Evidence to impeach the credit of a witness
(1) The credit of a witness may be impeached in the following ways by the adverse party, or, with the consent of the court, by the party who calls him—
(a) by the evidence of persons who testify...
- Section 164 - Circumstantial questions to confirm evidence
When a witness the truthfulness of whose evidence it is intended to confirm gives evidence of any fact, he may be questioned as to any other circumstances which he observed at or near the time or...
- Section 165 - Proof of consistency by former statements
In order to show that the testimony of a witness is consistent any former statement made by such witness, whether written or oral, relating to the same fact at or about the time when the fact took...
- Section 166 - Evidence to test statement of person not available as witness
Whenever any statement admissible under section 33 or section 34 of this Act is proved, all matters which might have been proved if that person had been called as a witness and had denied upon...
- Section 167 - Refreshing memory by reference to contemporaneous writing
(1) A witness may, while under examination, refresh his memory by referring to any writing made by himself at the time of the transaction concerning which he is questioned, or made so soon afterwards...
- Section 168 - Reference to accurate contemporaneous record though facts themselves not specifically recalled
A witness may testify to facts mentioned in any such writing as is referred to in section 167 of this Act although he has no specific recollection of the facts themselves, if he is sure that the facts...
- Section 169 - Rights of adverse party as to contemporaneous writing
Any writing referred to in section 167 or section 168 of this Act shall be produced and shown to the adverse party if he requires it, and such party may, if he pleases, cross-examine the witness...
- Section 170 - Production of documents of doubtful admissibility
(1) A witness summoned to produce a document shall, if it is in his possession or power, bring it to court notwithstanding any objection which there may be to its production or to its admissibility,...
- Section 171 - Document produced in answer to notice to be given as evidence if required
When a party calls for a document which he has given the other party notice to produce, and such document is produced and inspected by the party calling for its production, he is bound to give it as...
- Section 172 - Consequence of refusal to produce document in answer to notice
When a party refuses to produce a document for which he has had notice to produce, he cannot afterwards use the document as evidence without the consent of the other party or the order of the court.
- Section 173 - Extended powers of court for purpose of obtaining proper evidence
(1) A judge or magistrate may, in order to discover or to obtain proper evidence, ask any question he pleases, in any form, at any time, of any witness, or of the parties about any fact whether or not...
- Section 174 - Deleted by Act No. 7 of 2007, Sch.
Deleted by Act No. 7 of 2007, Sch.
- Section 175 - Effect of improper admission or rejection
The improper admission or rejection of evidence shall not of itself be ground for a new trial or for reversal of any decision in a case if it shall appear to the court before which the objection is...