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, the court has to consider the 'matter' before it. The expression, matters befor
e it in this definition includes materials which do not fall within the definitio
n of 'evidence' as given in Sec. 3. The result of local enquiry by a court, mate
rial objects brought before the court, material objects brought before the court
, the demeanor of witnesses, admission by parties, confessions by the accused, s
tatement of the accused, Commissioner's reports, are not evidence according to t
he definition given in Sec. 3. But they are all matters before the court to be c
onsidered while coming to conclusion.
Disproved and not Proved :- The definition of the word 'disproved' is a converse o
f the definition of the word 'proved'. The expression 'not proved' indicates a s
tate of mind in between the two, that is, when one cannot say whether a fact is
proved or disproved. Not Proved is something different from being false . An inabil
ity to prove a claim does not mean in all cases that it is false. It negatives b
oth proof and disproof.
Sec. 3 of Evidence Act, while explaining the meaning of proved, disproved and no
t proved provides, the standard of proof. This standard should be of ordinary pr
udence in person, who will judge its existence or non-existence from the standar
d of circumstances before him.
In Naval Kishor Somani v. Poonam Somani, Andhra Pradesh High Court said that a f
act which is proved does not necessarily mean that it is false one. The expressi
on 'Proved' is followed by expression disproved. This is followed by difinition
of 'not proved'. The fact is said to be not proved when it is neither proved not
disproved. On the other hand the fact is said to be disproved when after consid
ering the matters before it the court either believes that it does not exist or
considers its bib-existence. The word 'disproved' is akin to the word 'false'. W
hat is disproved is normally taken to be false thing. It will be thus seen that
a fact proved is not necessarily a fact disproved. A fact which is 'not proved'
may be false or true. A doubt lingers about its truth merely because it is not p
roved or may not jump to the conclusion that it is disproved. A fact is disprove
d normally by the person who claims that alleged that the fact is not true.
A fact is said to be disproved when the Court believes that the fact in question
does not exist and that the Court believes the non-existence of that fact from
the standard of man of ordinary prudence.
Not Proved where the fact is deemed to be not proved from the standard of a pers
on of ordinary prudence. The phrase NOT PROVED means neither the fact is proved
with certainty nor the fact is believed to exist. The phrase NOT PROVED is betwe
en the phrase proved and disproved. And the phrase not proved is the result of c
areful scrutiny of the person of ordinary-prudence that the fact either exists w
ith certainty nor its non-existence is proved with certainty. It is provision be
tween existence and non-existence of the fact in the mind of a man of ordinary p
rudence.