ENACTMENT NO 3 OF 1994 EVIDENCE (SYARIAH COURT) ENACTMENT 1994
PART I - RELEVANCY CHAPTER 1 - PRELIMINARY
Section 3. Interpretation.
(1) In this Enactment, unless the context otherwise requires -
"baligh" means of age according to Hukum Syara';
"baiyinah" means evidence which proves a right or interest and includes qarinah;
"computer" means any devide for recording, storing, processing, retriving or producing any information or other matter, or for performing any one or more of those functions, by whther name or description such device is called; and where two or more coputers carry out any one or more of those functions in combination or in succession or otherwise howsoever conjointly, they shall be treated as a single computer;
"Court" means Court established by the Administration of Islamic Law Enactment 1992;
"disproved" , a fact is said to be 'disproved' when, after considering the matters before it, the Court either believes that it does not exist or considers its non-existance so probable that a prodent man ought, under circumstances of a particular case, to act upon the supposition that it does not exist;
"document" means any matter expressed, described, or howsoever represented, upon any substance, material, thing or article, including any matter embodied in a disc, tape, film, sound track or other device whatsoever, by means of-
(a) letters, figures, marks, symbols, signals, signs, or other forms of expression, description, or representation whatsoever;
(b) any visual recording (whether of still or moving images);
(c) any sound recording, or any electronic, magnetic, mechanical or other recording whatsoever and howsoever made, or any sounds, electronic impulses, or other data whatsoever;
(d) a recording, or transmission, over a distance of any matter by any, or any combination, of the means mentioned in paragraph (a), (b) or (c),
or by more than one of the means mentioned in paragraphs (a), (b), (c) and (d), intended to be used or which may be used for the purpose of expressing, describing, or howsoever representing, that matter.
ILLUSTRATIONS
A writing is a document.
Words printed, lithographed or photographed are documents.
A map, plan, graph or sketch is a document.
An inscription on wood, metal, stone or any other substance, material or thing is a document.
A drawing, painting, picture or caricature is a document.
A photograph or a negative is a document.
A tape recording of a telephonic communication, including a recording of such communication transmitted over distance, is a document.
A photographic or other visual recording, including a recording of a photographic or other visual transmission over a distance, is a document.
A matter recorded, stored, processed, retrieved or produced by a computer is a document;
"evidence" includes-
(a) baiyinah and syahadah;
(b) all statements which the Court permits or requires to be made before it by witness in relation to matters of fact under inquiry:
Such statements are called oral evidence;
(c) all documents produced for the inspection of the Court:
Such documents are called documentary evidence;
"fact" means and includes -
(a) any things, state of things or relation of things capable of being perceived by the senses; or
(b) any mental condition of which any person is conscious.
lLLUSTRATIONS
(a) That there are certain objects arranged in a certain order in a certain place is a fact;
(b) That a person heard or saw something is a fact;
(c) That a person said certain words is a fact;
(d) That a person holds a certain opinion, has a certain intention, acts in good faith or fraudulently or uses a particular word in a particular sense, or is at a specified time conscious of a particular sensation is a fact;
(e) That a person has a certain reputation is a fact;
"fact in issue" means any fact from which, either by itself or in connection with other facts, the existence, non-existence, nature or extent of any right, liability or disability asserted, or denied in any suit or proceeding necessarily follows;
ILLUSTRATION
A is accused of khalwat with B.
At his trial the following facts may be in issue;
that A was alone with B in a car, that the car was parked in a dark and quiet place;
"film" includes microfilm and any negative;
"Hukum Syara'" means Islamic Law according to any recognised Mazhab;
"microfilm" means any transparent material bearing a visual image in reduced size either singly or as a series and includes a microfiche;
"negative" means a transparent negative photograph on any substance or material, and includes any transparent negative photograph made from the original negative photograph;
"not proved", a fact is said to be 'not proved' when such fact is neither 'proved' nor 'disproved' according to this Enactment;
"proved", a fact is said to be 'proved' when, after considering the matters before it, the Court either believes it to exist or considers its existence so probable that a prudent man ought, under the circumstances of a particular case, to act upon the supposition that it exists;
"qarinah" means fact connected with other facts in any of the ways referred to in Hukum Syara' or the provisions of this Enactment:
"syahadah" means evidence with the quality of truth given in a Court using the expression 'Asyhadu' in order to establish a right or interest of a person against another and if it is so established it binds the Judge.
"'urf' means custom or 'practice recognised by society or certain class of people whether in the form of word or deed;
"witness" does not include the accused in criminal proceedings and the parties in civil proceedings.
(2) For the avoidance of doubt as to the identity or interpretation of the words or expressions used in this Enactment that are listed in the Schedule, reference may be made to the Arabic script for those words and expressions as shown against them therein.