Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c10.96

c10.96

Already Megasthenes (fragment 27) speaks of mutilation as punishment for false evidence and corporeal punishments may be actually inflicted in the case of the false evidence of a low caste man according to Mit. on Y. 2, 81. According to Alberuni 2, 158 at least four witnesses had to be taken and only an exceptionally reliable man might be an only witness. According to Steele 285ff. minors, men rendered infirm by old age, a deaf man, one diseased in mind, an unusually quarrelsome person, one who is avaricious, one who is addicted to drink or opium, or one who is related with or friendly or inimical to a party, women and slaves were regarded as inadmissible witnesses; yet in the case of murder and other serious criminal cases everybody who was accidentally present should be heard. The minimum number of witnesses was two, yet in particular cases and when the witness had qualification a single witness was also permissible. False witnesses were punished with fines or detracting punishments excepting when a human life was saved or any pious gift was made thereby. According to Dubois 497 witnesses always had to take oath,