ENACTMENT NO 1 OF 1990 SYARIAH COURTS EVIDENCE ENACTMENT 1990
PART I - RELEVANCY CHAPTER 2 - RELEVANCY OF FACTS Statements by persons who cannot be called as witnesses
Section 20. Cases in which statement of relevant fact by person who is dead or cannot be found, ect., is relevant
(1) Statements, written or verbal, of relevant facts made by a person who is dead or who cannot be found, or who has become incapable, of giving evidence, or whose attendance cannot be procured without an amount of delay or expense which under the circumstances of the case appears to the Court unreasonable, are themselves relevant facts in the following cases:-
(a) when the statement is made by a person as to the cause of his death or as to any of the circumstances of the transaction which resulted in his death, in cases in which the cause of that person's death comes into question.
Such a statement is relevant whether the person who made it was or was not at the time when it was made under expectation of death, and whatever may. be the nature of the proceeding in which the cause of his death comes into question;
(b) when the statement was made by any such person in the ordinary course of business, and in particular when it consists of any entry or memorandum made by him in books kept in the ordinary course of business or in the discharge of professional duty; or of an acknowledgement written or signed by him of the receipt of money, goods, securities or property of any kind; or of a document used in commerce, written or signed by him, or of the date of a letter or other document usually dated, written or signed by him;
(c) when the statement is against the proprietary interest of the person making it, or when, if true, it would expose him or would have exposed him to a criminal prosecution or to a suit for damages;
(d) when the statement gives the opinion of any such person as to the existence of any public right or custom or matter of general interest, and of the existence oft which, if it existed he would have been likely to be aware, and when the statement was made before any controversy as to the right, custom or matter had arisen;
(e) when the statement reIates to the existence of any relationship by blood, marriage or fosterage between persons as to whose relationship the person making the statement had special means of knowledge when the statement was made before the question in dispute was raised;
(f) when the statement relates to the existence of any relationship by blood, marriage or fosterage between persons deceased, and is made in any will or deed relating to the affairs of the family to which any such deceased person belonged, or in any family pedigree or upon any tombstone, family potrait or other thing on which such statements are usually made, and when the statement was made before the question in dispute was raised;
(g) when the statement is c contained in any deed or any other document which relates to any transaction as is mentioned in section 13 (a);
(h) when the statement was made by a number of persons and expressed he feelings or impressions on their part relevant to the matter in question.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) The question is as to thb date of A's birth.
An entry in the diary pf a deceased doctor, regularly kept in the course of business, stating that on a given day he attended A's mother and delivered her of a son, is a relevant fact.
(b) The question is whether A was in Kuala Lumpur on a given day
A statement in the diary of a deceased advocate, regularly kept in the course of business, that on a given day the advocate attended A at a place mentioned in Kuala Lumpur for the purpose of conferring with him upon specIfIed business is a relevant fact.
(c) The question is whether A and B were legally married.
The statement of a deceased Kadi that he solemnised their marriage under circumstances that would make the solemnisation invalid is relevant.
(d) The question is whether A, a person who cannot be found, wrote a letter on a certain day.
The fact that a letter written ten by him is dated on that day is relevant.
(e) The question is whether A, who is dead, was the father of B.
A statement by A that B was his son is a relevant fact.
(f) The question is what was the date of the birth of A?
A letter from A's deceased father to a friend, announcing the birth of 14 on a given day, is a relevant fact.
(g) The question is whether and when A and B were married.
An entry in a memorandum-book by C, the deceased father of B, of his daughter's marriage with A on a given date, is a relevant fact.
(2) Evidence of such statement is inadmissible m cases of hudud and qisas.
(3) Evidence of such statement shall be given by at least two male witnesses or of lone male and two female witnesses.
(4) Evidence of such statement is inadmissible in the following cases-
(a) whenever the person who made such statement forbids the statement to be given as evidence
(b) whenever statement evidence; the person who made such is no larger qualified to give,
(c) whenever the person who made such statement refuses to testify on the ground that he has no evidence relevant to the dispute or that he denies making such statement or that he made a mistake in such statement