‘Human Tendency To Wait For Missing Person’: Gujarat High Court Says Suit For Declaring Child Missing Since 1984 Dead Not Barred By Limitation
Case: Mansinh Amarsinh Devdhara V/S State Of Gujarat
Coram: Justice AP Thaker
Case No.: C/SA/315/2021
Court Observation: “There cannot be any assumption or presumption that after certain period of time, the family members would automatically consider that the missing person has died on a particular date or within a particular point of time. Therefore, if father is waited for returning of his son before previous day of filing of the suit, it cannot be held that limitation period has started after seven years of date of missing of his son.”
“Section 108 of the Evidence Act clearly provides only for raising presumption. It is a limited presumption confined only to presume the factum of death of the person who’s life or death is in issue. There is no presumption as to the facts and circumstances under which the persons may have died.”
“At what point of time the person was dead is not a matter of presumption, but of evidence, factual or circumstantial, and the onus of proving that the death had taken place at any given point of time or date since the disappearance or within the period of seven years lies on the person who stakes the claim, the establishment of which will depend on proof of the date or time of death.”
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Keywords
Human Tendency To Wait,
