corroboration

Corroborating evidence must be independent of the evidence it supports, admissible, and must confirm it in a material particular, in a criminal case one that connects the accused with the crime. It need not prove the whole case by itself.

The law rarely requires corroboration; it is mainly a rule of prudence. For an accomplice, s.138 BSA (old s.133 Evidence Act) says a conviction on his uncorroborated evidence is not illegal, while illustration (b) to s.119 (old s.114) lets the court presume he is unworthy of credit unless corroborated. Read together, they produce the practice of insisting on corroboration. The evidence of a victim of a sexual offence needs no corroboration if it inspires confidence. A witness's earlier consistent statement may be used to corroborate him.

Example

The approver's account is corroborated in a material particular by the recovery of the stolen jewels from the accused's house.

In Indian law

• Section 138 and Section 119, illustration (b), Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 (old s.133 and s.114 illustration (b), Evidence Act)
• R. v. Baskerville (Court of Criminal Appeal, England, 1916): corroboration must be independent and implicate the accused in a material particular

See also

accomplice evidence · approver · child witness · interested witness

Read more in the study notes

• Initiation of a criminal case: FIR, Zero FIR, preliminary enquiry, investigation and complaint (Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita)
• Rape and sexual offences (Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita)
• False evidence and offences against public justice (Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita)
• Res gestae, motive, conduct, identification, conspiracy and alibi (sections 4 to 9) (Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam)
• Confessions: meaning, forms, voluntariness and confessions to the police (Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam)
• Information leading to discovery and confession of a co-accused (sections 23 proviso and 24) (Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam)