172. Admissibility of evidence

(1) When either party proposes to give evidence of any fact, the court may ask the party proposing to give the evidence in what manner the alleged fact, if proved, would be relevant; and the court shall admit the evidence if it thinks that the fact, if proved, would be relevant, and not otherwise.

(2) If the fact to be proved is one of which evidence is admissible only upon proof of some other fact, such last mentioned fact must be proved before evidence is given of the fact first-mentioned unless the party undertakes to give proof of such fact and the court is satisfied with such undertaking.

(3) If the relevancy of one alleged fact depends upon another alleged fact being first proved, the court may, in its discretion, either permit evidence of the first fact to be given before the second fact is proved or require evidence to be given of the second fact before evidence is given of the first fact.


175. Proof of facts by written statement

(1) In any criminal proceeding, a written statement by any person shall, if such of the conditions mentioned in subsection (2) as are applicable are satisfied, be admissible as evidence to the like extent as oral evidence to the like effect by that person.

(2) The said conditions are—

(a) the statement purports to be signed by the person who made it;
(b) the statement contains a declaration by that person to the effect that it is true to the best of his knowledge and belief and that he made the statement knowing that, if it were tendered in evidence, he would be liable to prosecution if he willfully stated in it anything which he knew to be false or did not believe to be true;
(c) before the hearing at which the statement is tendered in evidence, a copy of the statement is served, by or on behalf of the party proposing to tender it, on each of the other parties to the proceedings; and
(d) none of the other parties, within seven days from the service of the copy of the statement, serves a notice on the party so proposing objecting to the statement being tendered in evidence under this section:

Provided that the conditions mentioned in paragraphs (c) and (d) shall not apply if the parties agree before or during the hearing that the statement shall be so tendered.

(3) Notwithstanding that a written statement made by any person may be admissible as evidence by virtue of this section—

(a) the party by whom or on whose behalf a copy of the statement was served may call that person to give evidence; and
(b) the court may, of its own motion or on the application, made before or at the hearing, of any party to the proceedings require that person to attend before the court to give evidence.


176. Confessions

(1) Evidence of a confession by the accused shall, if otherwise relevant and admissible, be admitted by the court notwithstanding any objection to such admission upon any one or more of the following grounds (however expressed) that such confession was not made by the accused or, if made by him, was not freely and voluntarily made and without his having been unduly influenced thereto.

(2) No confession made by any person shall be admissible as evidence against any other person except to such extent as that other person may adopt it as his own.

179. Admissibility of photographs, plans

A photograph or plan relating to any matter which is relevant to the issue in any proceedings shall be admissible in evidence at any stage of such proceedings if the evidence of any person who is a competent and compellable witness in such proceedings and upon whose indications or observations such photograph or plan was taken or prepared is given either before or after such photograph or plan is put in by the party tendering such evidence.


180. Admissibility of the reports of experts

(1) Whenever any facts ascertained by any examination, including the examination of any person or body, or by any process requiring any skill in pathology, bacteriology, biology, chemistry, medicine, physics, botany, astronomy or geography or any body of knowledge or experience sufficiently organized or recognized as a reliable body of knowledge or experience and the opinions thereon of any person having that skill are or may become relevant to the issue in any criminal proceedings, a document purporting to be a report of such facts and opinions, by any person qualified to carry out such examination or process (in this section referred to as an "expert") who has carried out any such examination or process shall, subject to subsection (5), on its mere production by any party to those proceedings, be admissible in evidence therein to prove those facts and opinions if one of the conditions specified in subsection (3) is satisfied.

(3) The conditions referred to in subsection (1) are—

(a) that the other parties to the proceedings consent; or
(b) that the party proposing to tender the report has served on the other parties a copy of the report and, by endorsement on the report or otherwise, notice of his intention to tender it in evidence and none of the other parties has, within seven (7) days from such service, served on the party so proposing a notice objecting to the report being tendered in evidence under this section.

The provisions of section 175 (5) shall apply to service under this subsection.


(5) The admissibility of any report under subsection (1) shall not be affected by any neglect or failure of the expert concerned to appear in answer to any summons or to answer any interrogatories under subsection (4) if it is shown to the satisfaction of the court that he is dead, absent from Mala#i, incapable of giving evidence, cannot be found, is being kept out of the way by the adverse party or his attendance cannot be obtained without any amount of delay or expense which, in the circumstances of the case, the court considers unreasonable, but save as aforesaid the court may refuse to admit in evidence the report of an expert who fails to attend court or reply to interrogatories after having been required to do so under subsection (4).